Tag: samsung mobile payments

Samsung Pay mobile payments arrive in Brazil ahead of Olympics

The electronics and tech giant is introducing its branded app just in time for athletes and spectators.

Samsung Electronics Co. has announced that it is launching its mobile payments app, Samsung Pay, in Brazil. Certainly, the fact that the Olympic Games are headed to the country played a vital role in this decision. Should the launch be successful, it may open the door to more countries throughout Latin America.

Mobile phones are a primary access point for the internet in Latin America, making this strategy promising.

The mobile app, Samsung Pay, first saw its world debut in South Korea. That occurred nearly a year ago in August 2015. It has since become available to more countries. It has been in the United States since September 2015. Now, Samsung will be sending the mobile payments service to smartphone users attending – and participating in – the Olympic Games. This, according to the vice president of the unit, Haley Kim.

Samsung Pay will be up against some stiff competition as Apple and Google also make a grab for that market.

Samsung Pay Brazil The largest company in South Korea will be pitting its mobile payments service against Google Pay and Apple Pay. This is no small market opportunity. Forrester Research Inc. predicts that by 2019, it will have broken the $142 billion mark. Those three companies have been rivals in every major marketplace. They are seeking to draw customers to their apps not just to encourage them to use the mobile applications themselves, but also their devices.

In Brazil, Samsung already has a 42 percent share, said Gartner Inc.. That is sizeable when taking into account that there are more active mobile phone accounts than people in the country. The company is aiming to use its mobile payments service to bring in an even larger number of new users. That said, it could be a challenging effort considering the current state of the Brazilian economy. It is currently suffering the deepest depression it has faced for at least one hundred years.

Kim explained that “The demographic group buying and using these devices in Brazil is more the high-end or premium customers who may not be significantly impacted by this economic crisis.” Samsung Pay may have a bit of an advantage as the company is a corporate sponsor of the games. It is also selling a limited edition Galaxy Edge S7 featuring the Olympic rings and colors. The mobile payments app will also be compatible with users of other S7 devices, in addition to the A5 and A7 models and others.

Samsung mobile payments take different direction than rivals

The Korean electronics company sees its wallet app as a way to sell its devices, not fee-based revenue generation.

Samsung mobile payments are taking on rivals in the United States by using a different approach from what already exists. The company explained its goal to use the wallet app to sell smartphones over collecting fees.

This is a drastically different perspective on mobile wallets when compared to top rival, Apple.

Apple uses its mobile wallet as a part of its overall ecosystem. That said, Apple Pay, like other smartphone payment apps, is struggling for widespread and mainstream adoption. Meanwhile, its top competition, Samsung mobile payments, is going in a new direction. Samsung Pay is a strategy to encourage consumers to buy the company’s devices.

As such, this move breaks away from the typical mobile wallet model. Usually, mobile payments generate revenue through fees paid by financial partners and/or merchants. In Samsung’s case, it is an added selling feature for smartphones, tablets and other gear.Samsung Mobile Payments - Samsung phone

Samsung mobile payments will not be collecting usage fees from its financial partners.

Conversely, Apple Pay is a mobile wallet that mainly generates income by requiring its partner banks and financial institutions to pay a small charge for every completed transaction. The actual figure has not been publicly released. Equally, some reports have indicated that in the United States, it is a fee of 0.15 percent of the transaction.

On the flip side, Samsung Pay does not require its financial partners to pay a fee for its use. Instead, the electronics company aims to make it appealing to consumers, merchants and banks. That way, it will become widely available for use and will be a selling feature for its devices. This strategy uses the mobile wallet as a sales feature, not a revenue generator unto itself.

According to Samsung Pay global vice president, Elle Kim, “We’re a hardware company, and at the end of the day I think what we’re trying to do is get people who hold (one of) our phones and use it…to just love it more.” It will be interesting to see how the Samsung mobile payments strategy works against the competition.