Samsung Announces Launch of Apple Pay Rival 'Samsung Pay'

Samsung has announced the launch of a rival mobile payments service to Apple Pay, called 'Samsung Pay'. The service will launch in Korea on August 20th and in the U.S. on September 28th. The company has plans to launch the service in the U.K., Spain, and China, as well.

JK Shin, CEO and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics said, “With the launches of these exciting new smartphones, we will open a new era of mobile payment. This is Samsung’s brave step forward to enhance our mobile experience. It is easy, safe, and most importantly, available virtually anywhere you can swipe a card, in most cases without new costs for merchants, from day one.”

Samsung Pay will be preloaded on select Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note5 devices and a free software upgrade will be rolled out beginning mid-August, to enable Samsung Pay on Galaxy S6 and S6 edge devices in the U.S. and Korea. Select U.S. users of Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+ and Note5 will be able to participate in a beta trial from August 25 ahead of the September 28 launch.

FEATURES:
• SIMPLE: To make a payment on Samsung Pay, users can simply swipe up, scan their fingerprint and pay.

• SAFE: Samsung Pay uses tokenization, Samsung KNOX, and fingerprint authentication to provide secure payments and reduce the security risks inherent to plastic cards.

• VIRTUALLY ANYWHERE: With Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) and Near Field Communication (NFC) technologies, Samsung Pay works with most existing point-of-sale (POS) terminals. That means it’s the only mobile payment service that works virtually anywhere you can swipe your credit card or debit card.

“The future of mobile payments has arrived,” said InJong Rhee, EVP of Samsung Electronics, Global Head of Samsung Pay. “We are partnering with card networks, issuers and acquirers, and Samsung Pay will also be the first to support contactless payment for store-branded credit cards. The list of partners will only grow.”

Samsung anticipates working with payment networks such as, American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa, major banks including Bank of America, Chase, U.S. Bank and key financial partners including First Data, Synchrony Financial and TSYS to extend Samsung Pay to the U.S. Samsung anticipates working with all major Korean card companies including Samsung Card, Shinhan Card, KB Kookmin Card, Hyundai Card, Lotte Card, NH Nonghyup Card, BC Card, Hana Card, Woori Card and Citi Card.