Tag: china mobile commerce

Samsung to launch its mobile payments service in China this week

Samsung Pay will be launching in China soon

Samsung is planning to launch its first mobile payments service, called Samsung Pay, in China this week. The company is set to compete with Apple, which has only very recently brought its own payment service to the country. Unlike Apple, however, Samsung may have a relatively easy time engage consumers with its new service. Jefferies, a global investment bank, believes that Samsung will find success in the Chinese market, which has become heavily involved in mobile commerce in recent years.

Analysts see Samsung Pay finding more success among consumers than Apple Pay

Jefferies equity analyst Johnny Wong Kin-man believes that there will be less fanfare surrounding the launch of Samsung Pay, but it will likely be more accepted among merchants than Apple Pay. Apple has had trouble ensuring the launch of its payment service in China, where banks had shown relatively little interest in the service. Banks had shown concern that Apple was attempting to take advantage of the mobile commerce ecosystem that they have already established. Apple has since acquired the support of several banks, many of whom see a great deal of promise in the mobile payments space.

Samsung Pay could become a universally accepted payment platform

Mobile Payments Solution to Launch in ChinaSamsung Pay has already proven to be extremely popular among merchants. Samsung predicts that as many as 30 million merchant locations throughout the world will accept the new payment service in the near future. This would make Samsung Pay the world’s first mobile commerce solution that has near universal acceptance. In China, Samsung Pay may become quite popular among consumers that have become reliant on their mobile devices while shopping.

Samsung will face significant competition from Alibaba and Tencent

While Samsung may be able to find more success than Apple, it will face major competition from other companies that have become involved in mobile payments. Both Alibaba and Tencent have established major footholds in the mobile space, with consumers using the platforms these companies have develop to purchase products online and send money to one another.

Mobile commerce surges in China during the Lunar New Year

New Year’s celebrations lead to more mobile spending throughout China

The Lunar New Year has come and gone and mobile commerce surged during the Chinese holiday. During the Lunar New Year, those living in China send one another traditional red packets, called hong bao. These red envelopes typically contain money and is something that many people look forward to receiving every year. With the emergency of mobile technology, the way people give hong bao to one another has changed, which has been good news for mobile commerce in general.

Payment platforms enable consumers to send and receive hong bao efficiently

Both WeChat and Alipay enable people to deliver hong bao cards to one another. Both platforms have become very popular in China, as they allow people to make purchases and send money to others. These two platforms have allowed mobile shopping to thrive in China and have given their owners, Tencent and Alibaba respectively, a competitive edge over those that would try to enter into China’s mobile commerce market. During the Lunar New Year, the platforms proved to be particularly effective in serving mobile consumers.

The number of hong bao being send through mobile services continues to rise ad mobile payments become more common

Chinese New Year - Mobile CommerceAccording to Tencent, more than 8 billion hong bao cards were exchanged during the Lunar New Year. This is eight times more than the number of hong bao that were sent last year. This is actually a trend that has been seen over the past few years. More consumers are becoming mobile-centric, which is making them more comfortable with the concept of mobile payments and how their devices can be used to connect with one another.

China continues to be an attractive mobile commerce market for many

This year, the hong bao may highlight the growing importance of mobile payments systems, as well as their value. During the third quarter of 2015, China’s mobile commerce space was valued at approximately $368 million. The country is considered the fastest growing mobile payments market in the world, attracting the attention of other companies that are in this sector.