Apple Pay launches in China, where Alibaba rules

BEIJING — Apple Inc. on Thursday released its smartphone-based payment system in China, where the electronic payments market is already dominated by an arm of e-commerce giant Alibaba.

The merchants include supermarket Carrefour, fast food outlets McDonald’s and KFC, and convenience store 7-Eleven, according to a news release from China UnionPay, the country’s state-owned credit card processor that Apple is working with.

Apple Pay is a late arrival in a Chinese electronic payments market that offers smartphone users not just online shopping but also the option to order taxis, send money to friends, pay bills and invest in wealth management funds.