CHINA UnionPay, the country’s sole bank card provider, is planning to launch an Android-based Chinese payment app next year, domestic media reports said Tuesday.

    Several reports said the move was a bid to compete with fast-growing third-party payment processors like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Alipay.

    The Android payment app is still under development and is expected to be launched in the third quarter of next year, the First Financial Daily quoted an anonymous source close to UnionPay as saying Tuesday.

    The card company made the decision last week to launch the app — referred to in Chinese media reports as “Android Pay” — having earlier contacted Coolpad Group Ltd. and Lenovo Group Ltd., both of which are among the largest mobile phone makers in China, about supporting Android Pay on their phones, the First Financial Daily quoted Wang Yanhui, secretary-general of industry group Mobile Phone China Alliance, as saying.

    UnionPay began talks with Coolpad Group over a month ago and has been “quite active” on the initiative, Coolpad vice president Cao Jingsheng said in the report.

    He added that one of their high-end mobile phones would support an Android payment app next year.

    UnionPay’s move may be mainly aimed at competing with Alipay, the dominant mobile payment platform in China and increasing its share in the increasingly competitive mobile payment market in China, the First Financial Daily said.

    UnionPay has also been working with Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay, which may start its service in China in March 2015, Mobile Phone China Alliance’s Wang said in the report.(SD-Agencies)