UnionPay debuts 'mobile phone as POS product' overseas

Credit: Ti Gong

UnionPay International has debuted its "mobile phone as POS product" in overseas markets, facilitating better payment acceptance by small businesses.

Merchants can simply download a designated app onto a smartphone, complete the registration and review it online before the service is activated. Costs will be greatly reduced and additional hardware is not required.

Hong Kong fintech firm SPECTRA Technologies, Malaysia's AmBank Group and payment company Soft Space became the first group of organizations to provide this service to their merchants.

The product was warmly received by acquirers and merchants upon launch. In the Hong Kong Brands and Products Expo that recently opened, more than 100 exhibitors tried to take payments with the product, UnionPay International said.

As more consumers started shifting toward contact-free payments during the COVID-19 outbreak, UnionPay International has worked to enable more than 10 million merchants outside of the Chinese mainland to support UnionPay mobile QuickPass and QR Code payments.

This has minimized cash usage and the physical contact from face-to-face payments while improving the checkout experience.

UnionPay has also launched its PaybyLink solution with which merchants are able to accept payments online without the need to set up an e-commerce store.

It allows more small and micro businesses outside of the mainland to benefit from the adoption of mobile payments.