蘋果宣佈App Store與銀聯卡綁定

After a long wait, Apple’s Chinese customers can pay for goods in its App Store with the country’s most popular credit and debit card service, paving the way for new growth in virtual spending on the media, games and apps Apple offers online.

蘋果公司(Apple)的中國客戶們經過長期等待之後，終於能夠通過中國最廣爲使用的信用卡和借記卡服務，在該公司的App Store支付商品費用了，這爲實現蘋果在線商店中的媒體產品、遊戲，以及應用軟件的虛擬消費新增長鋪平了道路。

The United States technology giant said in a Monday statement that Chinese users could now use China UnionPay cards to buy items in the App Store.

這家美國技術行業巨頭在週一的一份聲明中表示，中國用戶現在可以使用中國銀聯卡在App Store中購買商品。

The agreement with UnionPay should make purchases much more convenient for Chinese users, who before had to set up prepaid accounts by sending money from a bank account to the Apple store to make purchases.

與銀聯達成的協議應該讓中國用戶能更方便地進行購買，以前他們需要設立預付賬戶、把錢從銀行轉帳過來才能在蘋果商店購買商品。

With a virtual monopoly on card payments in China, UnionPay also gives Apple instant access to a huge swath of new potential customers. More than 4.5 billion UnionPay cards have been issued to date, according to the Apple release.

銀聯幾乎壟斷着中國的銀行卡支付，這項協議也將讓蘋果在頃刻之間得以觸及大片新潛在客戶。根據蘋果公司的新聞稿，迄今發放的銀聯卡已超過45億張。

That is good news for Apple, and also for the burgeoning economy of mobile application makers in China, who sell their software on the App Store and share revenue with Apple.

這對蘋果來說是個好消息，對中國新興的移動應用開發行業來說也是好消息，他們通過在App Store銷售自己的軟件與蘋果分享營業收入。

‘‘China is already our second-largest market for app downloads, and now we’re providing users with an incredibly convenient way to purchase their favorite apps with just one tap,’’ Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said in the release.

“中國已經是我們應用軟件下載的第二大市場，現在我們正在爲用戶提供一個特別方便的方法，只需點擊一下就可以購買他們喜歡的應用，”蘋果公司主管互聯網軟件服務的高級副總裁埃迪·庫埃(Eddy Cue)在新聞稿中說。

Mr. Cue added that the ability for customers to link their Apple IDs with UnionPay cards had been the most requested feature from Chinese.

庫埃還說，中國客戶最希望得到的功能是將他們的AppleID與銀聯卡聯接起來。

That’s not surprising, given the number of steps Chinese consumers needed to take — including selecting their bank, providing an online banking password, and then depositing a minimum of 50 renminbi, or about $8, to set up a prepaid account — just to make a purchase from the App Store.

這一點也不奇怪。中國消費者在線購物需要很多步驟，包括選擇他們的銀行，提供網上銀行密碼，然後在設立的預付帳戶中存至少50元人民幣，只有在這些步驟之後，他們才能在App Store進行購買。

‘‘It should have a very significant impact,’’ said Mark Natkin, founder and managing director of the tech research firm Marbridge Consulting in Beijing.

“這應該有非常顯著的效果，”北京邁博瑞諮詢有限公司(Marbridge Consulting)創始人及執行董事馬克·納特金(Mark Natkin)說。

‘‘So many of these things in the App Store you are buying on a whim anyway. If you’re buying something on a whim and you don’t care that much, your patience with a multistep process is pretty thin,’’ he added.

“人們在App Store中購買的那麼多東西反正都是一時興起。如果你一時興起地購物，你不在乎那麼多，你對按部就班過程的耐心也相當少，”他補充說。

The new agreement is the first regulatory win for the company in China in a while. Although Apple’s iPhones remain hugely popular in China, the company has faced several problems with the government.

新協議是蘋果一段時間以來首次從中國監管層面取得的勝利。儘管蘋果的iPhone手機在中國仍然非常受歡迎，但公司與政府部門之間存在一些問題。

This fall, Apple faced a monthlong regulatory delay when it tried to release the iPhone 6, in part because of government concerns about the security of the phone. In October, security experts said Apple’s cloud storage services were the target of an attack that most likely came from the Chinese government.

今年秋季，蘋果試圖在中國發布iPhone6時遇到了一個月的監管延遲，部分原因是政府擔心手機的安全性。10月份有安全專家表示，蘋果的雲存儲服務一度成爲攻擊的目標，攻擊很有可能來自中國政府。

Since its creation in 2002 as an interbank transaction and settlement system to unify Chinese bank cards, UnionPay has been well protected from competition by China’s powerful central bank.

銀聯成立於2002年，是一個把中國的銀行卡統一起來的銀行間交易和結算系統，中國影響力巨大的央行一直大力保護銀聯不受競爭壓力。

The new agreement gives Apple an important, and nearly ubiquitous, partner in the country.

新協議使蘋果在中國得到一個重要的、幾乎無處不在的合作伙伴。

The cooperation also provides a new advantage over Google’s Android mobile operating system.

這一合作也提供了針對谷歌的Android移動操作系統的新優勢。

Because the Google Play app store is blocked in China, several independent app stores have sprung up supporting Android. With quality control sometimes lax and payment systems inconsistent, customers are generally more willing to spend money on Apple’s store than on the Android stores, according to analysts.

由於中國屏蔽了Google Play應用商店，支持Android系統的幾家獨立應用軟件商店涌現出來。據分析人士稱，這些獨立店的質量控制有時不夠嚴格，支付系統也不一致，所以客戶通常更願意把錢花在蘋果在線商店，而不花在支持Android系統的應用軟件商店。

Apple’s announcement did not make mention of Apple Pay, the company’s new initiative to use the iPhone as a way to transfer funds directly between customers and merchants.

蘋果的宣佈中沒有提到Apple Pay，Apple Pay是蘋果公司的新服務，能讓客戶通過iPhone與商家進行直接支付。

Though Apple is most likely hoping to bring the service to China, it will have to find merchants willing to work with it.

雖然蘋果可能很希望把該服務引進中國，但必須找到願意與其合作的商家。

It will also have to navigate a new set of regulatory difficulties. Chinese Internet companies like Tencent and Alibaba have both run into pushback from government regulators and state-run banks as they have tried to offer their own point-of-sales services to retailers and consumers.

蘋果也必須繞過一堆新的監管困難。中國的互聯網公司，比如騰訊和阿里巴巴，在試圖向零售商和消費者提供自己的銷售點支付服務時，都遇到了來自政府監管部門和國有銀行的阻力。

Junde Yu, a vice president with the mobile application research company App Annie, said data showed revenue from Apple’s App Store almost tripled in September 2014 from September 2013. And the new cooperation comes just in time for peak buying season.

移動應用研究公司App Annie副總裁於俊德表示，數據顯示，蘋果App Store在2014年9月的營收額幾乎是2013年9月的三倍。新合作正好趕上了高峯購物季節的到來。

“China downloads usually spike around the end of the year, and revenues extend shortly after, to Lunar New Year,” he said.

他說，“中國的下載量通常在年底大增，營收額的增長會一直延續到農曆新年。”