Extending to 10
Samsung Electronics announced in Las Vegas on Oct. 25 (local time) that Samsung Pay will add three new countries to the service roadmap – Malaysia, Russia and Thailand – which will bring the mobile payment service to 10 by the end of 2016.
Samsung Pay also announced a global partnership with Mastercard to offer a simplified online payment and express checkout solution through its digital payment service Masterpass starting early next year. Hundreds of thousands of merchants in 33 countries currently accept Masterpass for online payments.
“By partnering with Masterpass in the U.S. and rolling out online payments globally, we will simplify the online transaction experience by eliminating the need for customers to fill out tedious online checkout forms, remember long passwords or fumble for their wallets,” said Thomas Ko, VP and global GM of Samsung Pay’s Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics.
“Mastercard is working to ensure that every one of our accounts is as digital as the people using them,” said Garry Lyons, chief innovation officer at Mastercard, adding, “Enabling our cardholders to use Samsung Pay to shop online via Masterpass is the latest example of our work – alongside our banks, merchants and digital partners – to deliver rich, innovative, compelling and secure ways to pay and get paid across all channels and devices, redefining commerce globally.”
According to Samsung Electronics, Samsung Pay will provide consumers with a seamless online payment platform with benefits including the features: Express Checkout function to skip the process of filling out long online forms. With the express checkout solution, customers will be able use their Mastercard debit or credit cards along with the shipping information saved on their Samsung Pay account to quickly complete online transactions; make Purchases from Any Device to let customers be able to make online purchases from a computer, tablet or smartphone while shopping on their favorite sites or apps; and finally secure transactions to secure security in making online payments by using a unique token in an encrypted form – not the actual debit or credit card number. Users can authenticate transactions using secure methods including a fingerprint scanner, which is built into Samsung’s mobile devices.
Samsung Pay also announced new features in the United States, including support for in-app payments and new nearby discounts and savings, marking one more step toward a true digital wallet. The announcements came at Money 20/20, a leading payments and financial services event.
Beginning in November, Samsung Pay users will be able to locate discounts and coupons for nearby stores and restaurants through the new Deals feature within the Samsung Pay app, and redeem these deals instantly. With a new refreshed look, and enhancements to user experience and design on the Samsung Pay app, users will be able to find and redeem instant savings easily and quickly.
In November, users will also be able to use Samsung Pay as their payment option when they shop at select merchant apps. Simply select Samsung Pay during check-out, and select from the cards loaded within the app to make an in-app payment. To start, in-app payments will be available for Samsung Pay users when they shop with Velocity, Raise, Fancy, Hello Vino, Wish and Touch of Modern, with more to come.
With the addition of its latest financial partners Capital One and USAA, Samsung Pay now supports over 500 banks and credit unions, representing over 85 percent of the U.S. debit card and credit card market.