Vipps – The Worlds First Apple Pay Rival

Since its launch in 2014, Apple Pay has become a staple in the lives of iPhone users, and now the NFC platform has some competition. The world’s first Apple Pay rival, Vipps, has launched in Norway. Here’s more on what the service has to offer. 

For years Apple Pay has been the only NFC payment service available to iPhone users, however, in July 2024, Apple accepted the legally binding commitments of the European Commission, forcing the tech giant to open up its mobile payments system to competitors. 

Vipps launched on December 9th, allowing Norwegian Apple users to make contactless payments in shops using their iPhones. Currently, the tap-to-pay service is only available via selected banks, such as SpareBank 1, DNB, and 40 other Norwegian banks.

Vipps CEO Rune Garborg stated on the company website: “We have fought for years to be able to compete on equal footing with Apple, and it feels almost surreal to finally be able to launch our very own solution,” 

To make the big change over, iPhone users will just have to set Vipps as their default payment app. From this point onwards users can activate it by simply double-clicking the side button of their iPhone just like they would with Apple Pay.  

Currently, Vipps is only available in Norway but there are plans to expand it to Finland, Denmark and Sweden next year.