South Korea: Samsung takes mobile payments competition to next level

Samsung Electronics has entered South Korea’s mobile payments industry, giving the market a serious competitive boost.

Reports say the world’s largest handset maker announced a mobile payment service in collaboration with Yelopay and six commercial banks; reports say the new service will launch at the end of the year and be available on the Samsung Wallet mobile app.

But Samsung isn’t the only new entrant into the mobile payments industry. A Japan-based affiliate of Naver, which is South Korea’s largest Internet service provider, announced last month its own mobile payment service known as LINE Pay. The company said it expects to launch the service within a year.

Leading mobile messenger service KakwoTalk owner Daum Kako announced plans to add to its Kakao Pay mobile payment service, planning to roll out a mobile banking and payment aspect of the product this week.

Reports say the boost in mobile payment players has launched South Korea’s industry on-par with the growth of markets in the US and China, where technology giants Google, Apple, Alibaba, Tencent and others are all clamoring to gain an early lead in the emerging industry.

Full content: Korea Times

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