A British eCommerce firm has inked a 10-year deal with China's sole credit card company to bring its payments technology into the world's second largest market.

British payments startup Powa has created a joint venture with UnionPay Network Payments, a division of China UnionPay, to launch an app called PowaTag UnionPay. This app will give users the ability to pay for in-store purchases via their mobile devices.

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This deal coincides with reports that tech companies such as Apple and Samsung are also preparing to launch their respective mobile payments services in China. However, Powa is taking an approach different from the mobile giants.

Apple's and Samsung's approach revolves around point-of-sale (POS) transactions, which will require both companies to make deals with UnionPay, being the only company that has full control of all card-based payments in China. Powa, on the other hand, has a strategic partnership that will focus primarily on online-to-offline (O2O) purchases, rather that POS.

The O2O market is where people look for items to purchase online, scan codes (which can also be done with items in magazines), and then buy the item from the store.

While admitting that he is proud of what Powa has achieved in closing the deal with UnionPay, Powa CEO Dan Wagner said that this new deal has various implications for their company.

He said that the joint venture will be launched first in Guangdong Province which has a population of about 106 million. There, users will be given the convenience of using the app to transact with 400,000 merchants.

The joint venture hopes to have at least 50 million PowaTag app users in 2016.

"It’s a fantastic endorsement,” said Wagner.

“It’s an extraordinary move for a government-owned multi-trillion dollar company to outsource and rely upon a small British tech company to deliver this infrastructure for the whole of China. It’s extraordinary."

TagsPowa, UK, UnionPay, UnionPay Network Payments, PowaTag UnionPay, ApplePay China, China Mobile Payment System