Apple launched its payment service, almost eighteen months after arriving in the UAE, now in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. Listing all their banking and retail partners, Visa customers in the Kingdom are now able to buy just about anything with their iPhones.
The company was planning for a 2019 Q1 launch, as it was reported last year, Apple Pay was first trailed in the Saudi market last October. With the tech giant promising the option soon to be available Apple Pay was launched nationwide.
The Saudi Payments Networks, MADA, Al-Rajhi Bank and Riyad Bank has confirmed that it will initially work with Apple Pay in the country. Hopefully, with the growing markets, other banks including The Saudi British Bank (SABB) and SAMBA will perhaps be partners at a later stage.
Visa general manager for Saudi Arabia, Ali Bailoun, said in a statement:“As a country filled with tech-savvy, mobile-first consumers, we are delighted to work with Saudi Payments and our bank partners to help bring Apple Pay to Visa cardholders here, making their payments experience easier, faster and more secure than ever before.”
Apple Pay is a mobile wallet by Apple, for those of you who are unaware, that digitizes your debit and credit cards, making it easier for you to make both online and in-store payments using any your iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac.
The kingdom webpage for the service where Apple Pay can be used lists some of the high-profile retailers. These include Carrefour, Al Baik, Sephora, Lacoste, Starbucks and Home centre.
Saudi is the second country after UAE in the MENA region to get the service and could develop a very important market for Apple due to a large number of users that the company has in the country.
Apple Pay also continues to expand to new banks and financial institutions around the world. It is also expected to launch in the Czech Republic after Saudi, but that rollout has not yet started.