Following in the footsteps of Apple, Samsung and Huawei, local giant Xiaomi has become the latest smartphone maker to strike a deal with China UnionPay to roll out an NFC-based payments service.
Xiaomi, the biggest seller of phones in China last year, is in talks with UnionPay and several major banks about the contactless payments service, according to the South China Morning Post, but no launch date has been provided.
The potentially huge Chinese NFC payments market has hotted up this year, with Apple, Samsung and Huawei all launching their services.
More generally, Web giants Alibaba and Tencent dominate the huge Chinese mobile money market. Recent figures from Tencent suggested that the firm's WeChat messaging app is on course to facilitate some $556 billion over the year in P2P payments alone.
Xiaomi's move into the sector comes months after it acquired a 65% stake in internet payment firm Jiefu Ruitong, giving it an online payments license.