South Korean tech giant Samsung announced on March 29 that it is rolling out its mobile payment service, Samsung Pay, in China and Singapore. The roll out is part of Samsung's plan to make its Samsung Pay services available globally.
In China, Samsung Pay supports both debit and credit cards from nine major banks. These nine banks are the following: Ping An Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Hua Xia Bank, China Merchants Bank, China Minsheng Banking Corp. Ltd, China Guangfa Bank, China Everbright Bank, China Construction Bank, and China CITIC Bank.
Samsung added that it is still working with six other financial institution in order to further broaden its support in the country. These banks are Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Industrial Bank, China Bohai Bank, Bank of Communications, Bank of Beijing, and Bank of China.
According to Android Authority, only a handful of Samsung devices will support Samsung Pay in China. These devices are Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+. Samsung said that some of its mid-tiered devices will be able to support the mobile payment service in the future. However, the company added that most of this mid-tiered devices will have to use NFC sensors rather that the Magnetic Secure Transmission in doing Samsung Pay transactions.
Samsung's announcement to roll out Samsung Pay in China came in nearly two months after Apple announced its partnership with China UnionPay. Apple's own mobile payment service, Apple Pay, is now supported in about five million contactless point of sale terminals in China.
What separates Samsung Pay from its rivals like Apple Pay and Android pay is its Magnetic Source Transmission technology which allows it to support older pay terminals rather than just relying on the NFC sensor, according to Mashable.
Analysts consider China as Samsung Pay's third largest market. The mobile payment system was first launched in Samsung native land of South Korea where it was an instant hit and was later released in the United States in September 2015.
Before the end of the year, Samsung aims to release Samsung Pay in other international markets including Australia, Spain, United Kingdom and Brazil.