Samsung rolled out its mobile payments service in India, using which consumers will be able to make payments using their cards, mobile wallets or UPI.
Samsung Pay allows users to save several cards on the application, along with linking their mobile wallet (currently only Paytm) and UPI accounts. Users will have to authenticate using their biometric on the phone and bring the mobile closer to the Point of Sale device for the transaction to go through, instead of swiping a card.
“We have been working on the payment system for a year. While we have Samsung Pay in 12 other countries, this version is particularly made for India,” Asim Warsi, Senior Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India said.
Currently, Samsung Pay is available on select devices, including Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy A5 (2016), Galaxy A7 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017). It will also be available on the Samsung Gear S3 Smartwatch shortly, allowing users to pay through their wearable device.
The company has partnered with Visa, MasterCard, American Express, besides Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Card (only credit cards) and Standard Chartered Bank. Citibank India credit cards will soon go live on Samsung Pay.
The service was first launched in July 2015 and is now available in 12 countries, including South Korea, US, China, Spain, Singapore, Australia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Russia, Thailand and Malaysia.
“Samsung Pay works with Samsung’s patented Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology as well as with Near Field Communication (NFC). MST replicates a card swipe by wirelessly transmitting magnetic waves from the supported Samsung device to a standard card reader. Through MST, Samsung pay will work seamlessly on a majority of Point of Sale terminals in India,” Mr Warsi explained.
Samsung said in Korea alone, over 2 trillion won ($1.76 billion) was processed by Samsung Pay in its first year, 25% of which came from online payments.
