Samsung Pay
Amid intense competition to dominate the financial technology (fintech) market, Samsung Electronics is receiving a lot of attention. The company is scheduled to introduce its own mobile payments service, tentatively named Samsung Pay, to the U.S. in order to compete with Apple Pay.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said that 750 banks and credit institutions already accept Apple Pay as a payment method, adding, “2015 will be the year of Apple Pay.” Those remarks were made at a conference call, following its announcement of results for Q4 2014 on Jan. 27.
According to recent reports by overseas media outlets, Samsung is expected to feature Samsung Pay in the Galaxy S6, which is scheduled to be showcased at the MWC 2015 to be held in Barcelona, Spain in early February.
The Korean tech giant is reportedly talking with LoopPay to launch Samsung Pay. The U.S. startup company has a secure magnetic transmission technology, which allows users to tap a mobile device near a credit card magnetic swipe terminal in order to make an automatic payment.
Samsung is ahead of Apple in this field, since it is providing a mobile payment service in Korea and China via Galaxy S phones. The company started the digital wallet service Samsung Wallet in Korea in May 2013. It also forged partnerships with six local credit card companies in December 2013 to build infrastructure for online and offline payments using card companies' app cards, and to expand the use of its own payment application.
The company rolled out an NFC-based mobile phone payment service in China in early October of last year, in partnership with UnionPay. It is the first time for any smartphone maker to release a mobile NFC payments service in China in collaboration with China's largest credit company.
Considering that Samsung is providing its mobile payment service in two countries, the company is also likely to build partnerships with credit card companies in the U.S. to provide a mobile payments service using app cards.