Beijing (PingWest)—Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant, said on April 3 that it has launched its Huawei Pay service in Singapore in collaboration with UnionPay, China’s state-owned bank-card issuer.

Launched in mainland China in August 2016, Huawei Pay is a mobile payment tool that provides contactless, cashless payment service for HUAWEI and HONOR device users. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Singapore (ICBC Singapore) is the first bank to support this service in Singapore, said the giant.

To enable the service, customers first need to link their cards to Huawei Wallet, an app that comes preinstalled on Huawei’s newly launched P40 smartphones. Users of older Huawei and Honor handsets can also download the app from Huawei’s AppGallery store.

Singapore’s total digital payment transactions will reach US$14.3 billion this year and are expected to grow to US$19.2 billion by 2023, according to data from market research firm Statista.

As a latecomer, Huawei will face fierce competition in Singapore’s mobile payments sector, with local platforms such as GrabPay, FavePay, and PayNow competing with Chinese operators such as Alipay and WeChat Pay.

Since last year the US government restricted US companies from maintaining business relations with Huawei, the Chinese company could only release its latest phones without Google's service. 

Meanwhile, due to the coronavirus outbreak, global smartphone shipments will see a sharp decline. It’s reported Huawei expects that annual smartphone shipments will decline by about 20% this year. This is also the first time in 10 years that Huawei has encountered a decline in smartphone shipments.