Samsung Electronics today announced that Samsung Pay, the company’s e-wallet platform, will officially launch in Singapore on June 16. The island state will be the fifth country to enjoy the mobile payment service and first Southeast Asian nation, joining the likes of South Korea, United States, China and Spain. The company announces the service after a month Apple Pay launched it in the country.
The Korean Giant has partnered with payment services like Visa and MasterCard and banks namely Citibank, OCBC Bank, DBS Bank, POSB Bank and Standard Chartered to make the platform available in the island. The mobile payment service will be compatible with only a handful of Galaxy devices, starting from Note5 and above.
Samsung Pay can be used to make purchases almost anywhere that debit cards or credit cards are accepted. Combining NFC (Near Field Communication) with the company’s proprietary MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) technologies, it allows users to pay at terminals that not only accept contactless payment but also which accept contactless payment, unlike Android Pay and Apple Pay.
Since the introduction of Samsung Pay last year, we have seen great momentum and experienced significant consumer adoption. Samsung Pay has redefined the way consumers pay and use their smartphones. We are excited to bring this service to Singapore consumers and we hope to introduce value-added services to drive and lead innovation in mobile commerce, giving consumers a safer, smarter and better mobile wallet.
said Thomas Ko, Vice President and Global Co-General Manager of Samsung Pay at the company.
To prevent fraud, the company’s pay service uses encrypted digital tokens to replace sensitive card information. Transactions made on the platform requires one to swipe up to bring up the last transacted credit or debit card, scan fingerprint or key in PIN for authorization. Hence, it is safe and provides security to the users.
We are extremely excited that Samsung Pay is now available in Singapore. As the first market in Southeast Asia to roll out our mobile payment service, Singapore will pave the way for the region’s adoption of Samsung Pay.
said Stephen Suh, President, Samsung Electronics Singapore.
Additionally in the press release the multinational company mentioned that it will be exploring potential collaborations in the mobile payment space with Singtel, Singapore’s largest telecom company.
A few weeks before Samsung announced its partnership with AliPay to expand its services in China. The aim of partnership was to have an upper hand against Apple Pay which was launched a month before the former. Apple Pay has already been working well in the Singaporean market and is eyeing expansion in other countries as well.
3 comments