Xiaomi launches its own mobile payments service ‘Mi-Pay’

You name a consumer technology and Xiaomi wants to be part of it especially if Apple and Samsung operate there. After launching Mi Robot Vacuum two days back, the Chinese tech giant has now announced a new contactless payment system for its home market in China, quite expectedly dubbed, ‘Mi-Pay’.

The move was expected sooner or later as Xiaomi recently launched smartphones which have fingerprint scanner and the company already has its own wallet app.

The new service is based over UnionPay — the Chinese equivalent of Visa and supports credit cards from 20 banks and debit cards from 12, including Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, and China Merchants Bank, as well as public transportation cards from six cities.

But there’s a catch. It only works on one of its phones, the XiaomiMi 5. That's because the Mi 5 is really the only phone in Xiaomi's lineup that supports NFC.

Coming to usage, one can use the app pretty much like all other mobile payment solutions — users can assign credit and debit cards to Mi-Pay to make contactless payments with. The Mi Wallet app can tie up to 8 cards to one Xiaomi device and its users will also benefit from promos and rewards.