Apple Pay has arrived in Brazil, fulfilling a promise made by Apple CEO Tim Cook in his firm’s last quarterly earnings conference call. The company launched in the country today through a partnership with Itaú Unibanco Holding SA, a major bank.

Brazil represents one of the rare cases where Apple has arrived behind the competition. Samsung went live in Brazil well over a year ago, in the summer of 2016; and Google Pay launched in the country almost a month ago, in that case through a partnership with Banco Bradesco SA, another major Brazilian bank.

Nevertheless, the expansion points to Apple Pay’s growing presence on the global market. Since its launch in the US back in 2014, the mobile payments platform has spread to the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Russia, Japan, and much of Europe. And at home in the US market, the platform continues to attain more supporters among banks and credit unions, and a growing user base, according to Apple.

More broadly, mobile payment platforms are expected to grow significantly in the near future according to one recent market forecast. And among the factors helping to drive that growth is the use of biometric authentication, which improves both security and the user experience, with iPhone X users able to confirm transactions just by looking at their phone, for example.

Source: Reuters