Finally and officially, the South Korean tech giant’s very own mobile payment service and technology will soon be available in China as made possible by China UnionPay. This one will rival Apple Pay which launched first ahead of Samsung Pay. There’s no Android Pay yet so these two will probably go head to head when it comes to the tap-and-pay business in the country or just about anywhere in the world where Android Pay isn’t available.
What’s good about Samsung Pay is that it’s accepted in most establishments where credit or debit cards are accepted with a simple swipe or tap. That’s about everywhere and almost in all stores because the mobile payment service doesn’t require any new and special technology–just NFC. Any QuickPass POS terminal with NFC can accept payment and most POS terminals even without the NFC technology.
The only challenge now is Samsung Pay only works on a supported Samsung device. The list of phones is still limited but includes some of the latest premium Galaxy phones like the S7, S7 edge, S6, S6 edge, S6 Edge+, and the Note 5.
We still don’t know when the cheaper Samsung phones will be ready for Samsung Pay but if you have an old Galaxy phone, make this announcement a reason why you should buy a new smartphone. Samsung needs to market the mobile payment service before Android Pay enters the game. The latter may have a wider reach because even old Android phones can support Google’s cashless payment app.
In China, several banks are already supported: China Construction Bank, China CITIC Bank, China Guangfa Bank, China Everbright Bank, China Minsheng Banking Corp. Ltd, China Merchants Bank, Hua Xia Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Ping An Bank. Credit and debit cards issued by these banks can be linked to your Samsung Pay account. Other banks will soon follow including Industrial Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China Bohai Bank, Bank of Beijing, Bank of Communications, and Bank of China.
SOURCE: Samsung,
