Apple in Talks With Alibaba to Help Launch Apple Pay in China

China looks set to be the next payments frontier for Apple Pay and a high powered partnership could provide the missing link. Apple is said to be in advanced talks with commerce giant Alibaba to get Apple's payment technology into the mainstream Chinese market. Apple Pay was launched in the U.S. last September and CEO Tim Cook is now looking East to the company's second largest revenue market. Alibaba already owns its own mobile payment system, Alipay which processes payments using bar code scanning. The Near Field Communication technology used by Apple Pay is currently dominated by China's state owned credit card operator UnionPay. So while details of the partnership are still unclear, teaming up with Alibaba could give Apple Pay a much needed boost in the market.