Apple CEO Tim Cook says Apple Pay is already a big hit, with more than one million users activating their credit cards within the week to be able to access their mobile payment system, reports USA Today.

During the WSJDLive conference at Laguna Beach, California, Tim Cook said, ""We've been told by MasterCard and Visa that if you summed up everyone else in mobile payments, we're already No. 1. We're more than the total of all the other guys, and we've only been at it for a week."

Jefferson Graham of USA Today, however, writes that "while the number sounds impressive, it's just a sliver of the total retail pie" which alludes to the exclusion of big retailers such as Walmart, Sears, and Target.

Apple Pay has also been disabled by big drugstore chains CVS and Rite Aid, both of which are going to use a proprietary mobile payment platform based on QR code instead of NFC technology.

"It's a skirmish, that's the way we see it," said Cook. "I think that over the long arc of time, retailers will step back. Merchants have different objectives some times, but in the long arc of time, you're only relevant if customers love you."

Paypal and Google have previously tried offering mobile payment systems such as the one that Apple Pay is implementing, says Cade Metz of Wired.com. According to Metz, however, Apple is currently "in a unique position to finally expand smartphone payments to a mainstream audience."

"With the iPhone, the company controls both the hardware and the software needed to operate a mobile payments service, and it has the clout to establish the necessary partnerships with credit card companies, banks, and merchants," explains Metz.

In the meantime, Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, said during the conference that he is looking to establish a partnership between Apple Pay and his store's own payment services, reports Tech Crunch.

Tim Cook has also indicated he is willing to meet with Jack Ma to discuss such a partnership. "If we can find some areas of common space, I love it. I love partnering with people like that."