Samsung partners Alibaba on mobile payment systems
Barely two months after launching its mobile payment service in China, Samsung now plans to partner with e-commerce giant Alibaba to expand the service in the world’s largest mobile market.
Few details of the partnership were released, according to source, the companies plan to make an announcement about the payment service tomorrow. It is said that the deal will allow Samsung Pay users to pay for offline purchases using Alipay’s QR codes and barcode scanners.
The mainland’s mobile payment market is dominated by Alipay, Alibaba’s mobile payment arm, and Tennent’s Tenpay. But that hasn’t stopped numerous companies from announcing payment services in the first quarter.
The Korean electronics giant’s Samsung Pay went live in China in March, just a month after Apple Pay entered the mainland. Huawei – the world’s third largest smartphone vendor – joined the crowd with plans to offer a payment service for its smartphones and wearable.
Alipay claims it has 450 million subscribers in China for its third-party payment system.
At launch in China Samsung Pay supported credit and debit cards from nine banks, with a further six banks planned. The US was the second launch market after Samsung’s home in South Korea. It is planning launches later in the year in Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Spain and the UK.
The company said more than five million people use Samsung Pay in South Korea and the US, with transactions valued at about KRW1 trillion ($840 million) over the past month.
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