Samsung launches ‘Samsung Pay’, a first of its kind mobile payment service in India

Samsung has officially launched its mobile payment service ‘Samsung Pay’ in India. The service was already made open for early access registration and now it has finally been launched for commercial availability throughout the country. For time being, the service will be supported by only a limited Samsung devices and list of devices (mentioned later in the article).

According to the company, ‘Samsung Pay’ is the easiest and safe way to make payments and transactions without carrying your credit and debit cards. The ‘Samsung Pay’ also has Paytm wallet and Government’s UPI integration within the app. Including Paytm makes it easy to make payments via scanning the QR code and generating OTP’s for secure merchant transactions.

The service won’t be available on all the Samsung smartphones as of now, however the eligible smartphones that support ‘Samsung Pay’ are Samsung Galaxy S5, Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge,  Galaxy S6 edge+, Samsung Galaxy A5 and A7 (2016) and Samsung Galaxy A5 and A7 (2017), the app will be also available on Samsung gear smartwatch soon. For ‘Samsung Pay’, the company has partnered with Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Credit Cards and Standard Chartered Bank, also Citibank India will soon be added to the list.

‘Samsung Pay’ uses company’s patented Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) and Near Field Communication (NFC) for easy and secure on-going. The MST technology is similar to that of a card swipe, only the procedure is conducted wirelessly through magnetic waves transmitted by the compatible Samsung device.

To start using ‘Samsung Pay’, just install and activate the app on an eligible Samsung smartphone. Register with your credit or debit card (one time process). While paying, swipe up and select the card, the app will require authentication via fingerprint or four digit code. Next, place your smartphone near the Point of Sale (POS) terminal and that’s all. More guidelines and detailed procedure is also provided on the Samsung’s website.

With its launch in India, ‘Samsung Pay’ is now available in 12 Global markets. HC Hong, President and CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia, said,

“Samsung Pay is an example of how we continue to push the boundaries of innovations to make life simpler and better for consumers. I am confident Samsung Pay will redefine digital payments and contribute to Digital India.”

Mr. Asim Warsi, Senior Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India said:

“Our insights show that convenience, security and acceptance are seen by consumers as the most important influencers when choosing among different digital payment options”

“With Samsung Pay, we give our consumers the smartest way to make digital transactions by far. Samsung Pay is highly secure through the signature KNOX Platform, fingerprint authentication and tokenization. We have partnered with major banks and card networks to give our consumers the widest range of choices, and are working on bringing more and more partners on board soon.”