Discover Card Now Accepted in China
By Justin McHenry
Discover Financial Services made its foray into China official last week, when CEO David Nelms purchased a bronze horse with his Discover Card at Qianmen Quanjude restaurant in Beijing. It was the first transaction in a partnership between Discover and China Unionpay that allows Discover credit cards to be accepted at merchant locations where China Unionpay is accepted. This includes over 480,000 merchant locations and 90,000 ATMs across China. As part of the partnership, China Unionpay cards began being accepted at Discover Network merchants in the United States last December.
Discover signed a long-term agreement with China Unionpay in May of 2005, as part of a multi-pronged strategy to increase its reach internationally. One of Discover’s shortcomings in trying to compete with larger rivals Visa, MasterCard and American Express has been the fact that it can be used in few locations outside of the United States. In addition to extending into China, Discover has agreements that will allow it to achieve merchant acceptance in Japan and in some Central American countries in the near future.