[Editorial] Upgrade Your Wallet with Samsung Pay
Simple, Secure, and Virtually Anywhere. These are three principles that have guided Samsung Pay, right from our initial vision for the service to the recent one-year anniversary of its launch.
And what an incredible year it’s been.
We’ve transformed an idea into the most widely accepted mobile payment service globally. We’ve registered more than four million membership cards in the United States and South Korea, expanded our global partner ecosystem and, shortly, we’ll be bringing several exciting new features to our customers in the U.S.
While there are many successes to celebrate, the mobile payments industry continues to move forward. Here at Samsung, we’re committed to driving the evolution of mobile payments with Samsung Pay toward more than just payments.
Combining Technology with a Fundamental Challenge
Samsung Pay was born from the need to solve a simple problem: Payments are too complex. Between cash, credit and debit cards, loyalty cards, gift cards, coupons and receipts, there are too many things to squeeze into our wallets.
At the same time, smartphones have changed the way we live, work and interact with one another. We saw an opportunity to upgrade the wallet as we have traditionally known it by combining it with the best technology solutions we can offer.
From Mind to Market – Turning Ideas Into Reality
Our mission for Samsung Pay goes beyond simply developing technology – we’re driven to create a holistic digital wallet experience. To do this, we need to change the way people think about making a purchase.
It’s a hard task but I believe we’re on the right track. As we move forward, we’ll continue to improve our solution and bring more benefits to users, including new value-added services from our expanding partnership ecosystem.
New Samsung Pay Features…
Value-added services are critical to making sure we’re developing a digital wallet that makes our users’ lives more convenient and we’re incredibly excited to announce new features for our U.S. customers.
Knowing that our customers are already enjoying our membership cards, gift cards, loyalty cards and more, we are launching a location-based Deals feature. This means users can find new, nearby discounts and coupons, without needing to upload or have an existing membership or loyalty card. What I love about this feature is that it’s available to all Samsung Pay users across the country.
We’re also bringing Samsung Pay to the web wherever Masterpass, the digital payment service from Mastercard, is accepted, to enable quick, seamless and secure online transactions. Our partnership with MasterCard will simplify the online transaction experience in the U.S. by taking away the need for Mastercard credit and debit card holders to fill out tedious online checkout forms, remember long passwords or fumble for their wallets.
We’re also launching new in-app payments, allowing users to choose Samsung Pay as their payment option when they shop within apps. It’s really simple and easy to use.
All you have to do is select Samsung Pay during checkout and choose from the cards on file to make an in-app payment. We already have some fantastic partners for our U.S. customers to try out this feature, including Velocity, Raise, Fancy, Hello Vino, Wish and Touch of Modern, and we will continue to add additional partners in the future.
…And New Ways to Make Use of Them
To achieve our vision for mobile payments, we must constantly improve our solution to meet the evolving needs of our users. That’s why we’re expanding Samsung Pay onto other devices, including the Samsung Gear S3 with both NFC and MST technologies.
Bringing Samsung Pay to wearable devices opens mobile payments up to more people, while simultaneously making it more convenient to make payments.
These features bring us closer than ever to a fully-fledged digital wallet, and I hope that you agree after trying them out!
Global Expansion and Building Upon our Partnership Ecosystem
Something we always look toward at Samsung is bringing Samsung Pay to as many users as we can worldwide.
In line with this, I’m thrilled to share that by the end of 2016, we’re expanding the service to three new markets: Malaysia, Thailand and Russia. This will bring Samsung Pay to 10 countries by the end of the year and expansion will only continue in the years to come.
Our growing partnerships also provide an increasingly ubiquitous payment experience. I’m excited that we’re partnering with both Capital One and USAA, and we now support more than 500 banks and credit unions, representing over 85 percent of the U.S. debit and credit card market.
A Wonderful, Exciting Year
We have great ambitions for Samsung Pay, as a tool and a solution that shapes our future mindsets and approach to money.
So, to our customers and partners around the world: Thank you for joining us on this journey. It’s been a milestone year, and the future holds even more.
