Samsung Pay will be available on high-end phones of Samsung in India. This may become the potential solution for the demonetization effect that happened in the country recently.
The Korean-based tech firm intends to digitize monetary transactions, as India's Rs. 1000 and Rs. 500 are already considered to be piles of garbage after Prime Minister Narenda Modi's televised speech announcing the news. As defined, demonetization happens when a currency unit is stripped off its status as legal tender.
The Indian government decided to demonetize Rs. 1000 and Rs. 500 in order to fight corruption in the country, as the black market will fall if the big amounts of cash concealed from circulation will have no value anymore. The change was implemented instantly.
With this in mind, Samsung saw the potential of providing digital money services for using Samsung Pay, and it will also work in partnership with American Express, MasterCard and Visa. The service was already used in major markets, and may have its full implementation by the end of the first half of 2017.
The Android Nougat update, which has the Samsung Pay installed, already rolled out in high-end Samsung devices such as the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, and Galaxy Note. With 2.5 million of these devices sold in India, the digital money approach may actually be a success.
Mobile wallets are increasingly becoming popular because of its secured transactions. Even Google CEO Sundar Pichai once expressed his intentions to bring mobile payment solutions to India. This implies that the Indian market is a potential territory for Samsung Pay.
Samsung Pay works as a central database of multiple cards from different banks, inclusive of Samsung's reward cards. It provides a gateway of transactions by means of a tap or code. Simple, efficient, and secured - that's how the digital wallet app is described. The full implementation is yet to be announced, but many from the Indian community are excited to use the app.