The deal is a win-win of sorts as Samsung needs more incentive for Chinese users to use Samsung Pay, while Alipay can use the Korean service to expand its offline reach.
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Samsung Electronics Co. will partner with China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba for mobile payment services in a move to expand into the fast-growing market there, industry sources said Thursday. Users will now be able to use their Alipay account on eligible Samsung mobile phones with Samsung Pay.
This partnership will give Samsung an upper hand against Apple Pay (launched in February in China) as it is still facing problems in tackling China, shown by the decline of iPhone sales this quarter.
Confirming the Yonhap report, the spokesman said the company will release a statement on the bilateral ties with Alibaba. Samsung’s mobile-payment service, Samsung Pay, will expand beyond the USA and Korea this year.
Samsung Pay allows Samsung smartphone users to load their credit card information onto their handsets and use them to pay at cash registers equipped either with next-generation near-field communication technology, or with traditional magnetic-stripe machines.
In this August 6, 2015 AP/Seth Wenig file photo, a Samsung employee demonstrates how to use Samsung Pay with a Galaxy S6 Edge Plus in NY.
The deal means that Samsung now has a large payment provider in china which has more tha 450 million users.
AliPay is the largest third-party online payment platform in China and has seen tremendous growth since its launch in 2004.
The South Korean smartphone maker began pre-loading Samsung Pay on its premium handsets a year ago, and in March added support for China, in conjunction with state-run UnionPay, the country’s dominant card issuer.
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But Samsung didn’t provide the comparable figure in the U.S.
