Another smartphone company has thrown its hat into the mobile payment ring. China-based OEM Xiaomi has announced Mi Pay, another NFC-based mPayment service to compete against Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and other big players in the growing market.

For now, Mi Pay has a somewhat limited ecosystem upon which to operate. In terms of institutional support, it’s supported exclusively by Chinese banks, including Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank, China Merchants Bank, Huaxia Bank, Industrial Bank, Minsheng Bank, and Ping An Bank, with further support in the pipeline for next month. As for hardware, only the Mi 5 is compatible, but as AndroidAuthority reports, some Xiaomi smartphones already have the NFC technology necessary to support the contactless payments and so could potentially be made compatible with Mi Pay via a software update, while other forthcoming devices are likely to support the platform out of the box.

It isn’t yet clear when the service will launch, but when it does arrive it will be joining an already heated market. Apple Pay and Samsung Pay seem to dominate the mPayment field in terms of brand recognition, but Android Pay is another serious player and Microsoft recently launched its own digital wallet; meanwhile LG appears to be preparing its own offering for launch this year.

Sources: Android Authority, Android Community, Android Headlines