[Editorial] Upgrade Your Wallet with Samsung Pay

Simple, secure, and almost anywhere. These are the three principles that have guided Samsung Pay, from our initial vision for the service to the recent one-year anniversary of its launch.

And what an incredible year it’s been.

We’ve transformed an idea into the most widely accepted mobile payment service globally. We now have more than four million membership cards registered in the United States and South Korea, we expanded our global partner ecosystem and, soon, we’ll be bringing several exciting new features to our customers in the U.S.

While there are many successes to celebrate, the mobile payment industry continues to move forward. Here at Samsung, we’re committed to driving the evolution  by looking at more than just mobile payments.

Combining Technology with a Fundamental Challenge

Samsung Pay was born from the need to solve a simple problem: Payments are too complex. Between cash, credit and debit cards, loyalty cards, gift cards, coupons and receipts, there are too many things to squeeze into our wallets.

At the same time, smartphones have changed the way we live, work and interact with one another. We saw an opportunity to upgrade the wallet as we have traditionally known it by combining it with advanced technology solutions.

From Mind to Market – Turning Ideas Into Reality

Our mission for Samsung Pay goes beyond simply developing technology – we’re driven to create a holistic digital wallet experience. To do this, we need to change the way people think about making purchases.

It’s a hard task but I believe we’re on the right track. As we move forward, we’ll continue to improve our solution and bring more benefits to users, including new value-added services from our expanding partner ecosystem.

New Samsung Pay Features…

Value-added services are critical to making sure we’re upgrading the wallet and making users’ lives more convenient. With this, we’re incredibly excited to announce new features for our U.S. customers.

Knowing that our customers are already enjoying our membership, gift and loyalty cards and more, we are launching a location-based Deals feature. With this new feature, Samsung Pay users will be able to locate discounts and coupons for nearby stores and restaurants within the app and redeem these deals instantly. What I love about this feature is that it’s available to all Samsung Pay users across the country. With the introduction of Deals, we are refreshing the look of the app by making enhancements to the user experience and design.

We’re embarking on a global partnership with Mastercard to offer a seamless online payment and express checkout solution through its digital payment service Masterpass. With this partnership, Samsung Pay will simplify the online transaction experience in the U.S. by taking away the need for users to fill out tedious online checkout forms, remember long passwords or fumble for their wallets.

Soon, users will be able to make in-app payments by choosing Samsung Pay as their payment option when they shop on select merchant apps. It’s really simple and easy to use. All you have to do is select Samsung Pay during checkout and choose from the cards on file to make an in-app payment. We already have some fantastic partners for our U.S. customers to try out this feature, including Velocity,  Raise, Fancy, Hello Vino, Wish, and Touch of Modern, and we will continue to add additional partners in the future.

All you have to do is select Samsung Pay during checkout and choose from the cards on file to make an in-app payment. We already have some fantastic partners for our U.S. customers to try out this feature, including Velocity, Raise, Fancy, Hello Vino, Wish and Touch of Modern, and we will continue to add additional partners in the future.

…And New Ways to Make Use of Them

To achieve our vision for mobile payments, we must constantly improve our solution to meet the evolving needs of our users. That’s why we’re expanding Samsung Pay onto other devices, including the Samsung Gear S3 with both NFC and MST technologies.

Bringing Samsung Pay to wearable devices opens mobile payments up to more people, while simultaneously making it more convenient to make payments.

These features bring us closer than ever to a true digital wallet, and I hope that you agree after trying them out!

Global Expansion and Building Upon our Partnership Ecosystem

Something we always look toward at Samsung is bringing Samsung Pay to as many users as we can worldwide.

In line with this, I’m thrilled to share that by the end of 2016, we will expand the service to three new markets: Malaysia, Thailand and Russia. This will bring Samsung Pay to 10 countries by the end of the year and expansion will only continue in the years to come.

Our growing partnership ecosystem provides an increasingly ubiquitous payment experience. With both Capital One and USAA on board in the United States, we now support from more than 500 banks and credit unions, representing over 85 percent of the U.S. debit and credit card market.

A Wonderful, Exciting Year

We have great ambitions for Samsung Pay, as a tool and a solution that shapes our future mindsets and how we make every day transactions.

So, to our customers and partners around the world, thank you for joining us on this journey. We’re excited for what’s to come.