Android Pay will debut in the UK at the end of March, only its second market after the US, as it seeks to keep up with the international expansion of rivals, according to the Telegraph.

Google’s payment service made its first appearance in the US in September last year.

The three main rivals, Google, Apple and Samsung, are vying on their rollouts, although, collectively, they are moving in a fairly pedestrian manner.

Apple Pay was the first to debut in the US in October 2014 and now the three companies have launched in a total of eight countries between them.

Apple Pay launched in the UK last summer, although it has released no figures to indicate take-up among users. It is also available in the US, China, Australia and Canada (although only for American Express cardholders in the last two countries).

Competitor Samsung Pay is not available in the UK so far, although the South Korean vendor announced its intention to launch in the country later in 2016, along with several other markets. Samsung Pay is currently only available in the US and South Korea with a Chinese launch slated for March.

Google has said it will launch Android Pay in Australia during the first half of 2016.

Rollouts of mobile payment services are complicated because support is needed from the bank issuers of Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards.

Typically, there are a fair number of banks in each country and negotiations with them can be protracted, not least because they are concerned about the threat of disintermediation.

Like its rivals, Android Pay enables users to load virtual versions of their Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards onto their NFC-enabled smartphones and then make payments at the point-of-sale.

Last week’s Mobile World Congress showed other players are also entering the same space, notably PayPal which struck a partnership with Vodafone so subscribers can use their PayPal accounts for transactions in locations such as shops and restaurants.