Sanjay with his mother: Do What You Can’t

“She was not comfortable using the smartphone–as it involves touches on the screen. And she never understood why the rest of the family were, at times, hooked on to their devices,” says Sanjay. But over the last few days, Sanjay’s mom has turned into a smartphone fan. She is doing video calls with Sanjay’s siblings who aren’t able to meet her. She is video calling her sister in Jammu, whose son is stuck (as a crew member) on the Grand Princess cruise ship on the coast of San Francisco. And she has been witnessing how Sanjay is paying her doctor’s fee, and other bills, through his smartphone.

“We all understand the predicament of our seniors. But once that barrier is overcome, they know how helpful the smartphone can be. During the lockdown, most of us must have felt the same way,” he adds.

Sanjay now expects people to use their smartphone services more meaningfully. As they delve deeper into the digital world, they need more trusted and secured devices. Like Samsung phones, which are protected by defense-grade KNOX security.

The smartphone’s utility will also rise from a hygiene point of view–the lesser the touch, the better. For instance, consumers will use Samsung Pay to make contactless payments on card machines (instead of handing out the credit or debit card). Galaxy users can also use it to make payments through wallets and UPI, with a swipe of the finger on their personal device.

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Sanjay, who spent his initial years in Samsung at SRI-Bengaluru, Samsung’s biggest research centre outside Korea, before moving to the Two Horizon Center head-office in Gurugram, played a leading role in localising and launching Samsung Pay, the only contactless phone payment service in India that can be used on both, Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) and Near Field Communication (NFC) technology-enabled card machines.

Samsung Pay is the first smartphone-based UPI Payment application launched in India. It also integrated several digital wallets, and recently added the national toll payment app FASTag into it, making it a ‘super payment app’ for all consumers.

‘We will delve deeper into the Digital World’

The team recently enabled Samsung Pay for consumers to pay directly to the PM CARES Fund via the app.

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“You really don’t need to worry if you forget your wallet and cash back home. If you have your phone with Samsung Pay on it, you can make credit and debit card payments, and even UPI or wallet payments using your smartphone, and without having to touch any other object,” Sanjay explains.

“And now that my mom is comfortable using the smartphone, I really want her to experience Samsung Pay some day. It is a sheer joy to see how people react when they make a payment by just tapping their phone on the card machine. It’s like some magic.”

A significant achievement of the digital services team in India that Sanjay leads was to localise the Galaxy Store, loading it with top local content, games as well as themes. The ‘Make for India’ Galaxy Store is now available in 14 regional languages giving local app and content developers better discovery and reach.

The team also repositioned the ‘My Galaxy’ app as a unique platform for curated content—videos, music and games—for Indian consumers. They recently added a K-Pop section that has been a run-away hit among millennials. ‘My Galaxy’ has seen significant uptick in content consumption at a time when a large number of people in India are working remotely from home.

What’s his take on work from home? Sanjay quips he has an added role now! At home, he gets to decide how his family members use data, and when. “It is challenging and fun in equal measures. I have back-to-back video conferences, my wife works from home and our kids attend online classes. A typical weekday starts with identifying how to ensure Wi-Fi connectivity for all. I have to ensure that no data is diverted for entertainment during office hours, even if that means changing Wi-Fi password at times,” says Sanjay, with the effervescent smile on his face.

Three Mantras

• Think differently
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In our endeavour to enable you to support the cause, we have updated our Samsung Pay platform to allow seamless donations for the PM Cares Fund, set up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

If you are using a Samsung Galaxy smartphone and are a Samsung Pay user, you can now directly contribute to the PM Cares Fund by clicking on the PM Cares Fund option in Samsung Pay.

Transactions to the PM Cares Fund are powered by government-backed instant real time payment system Unified Payments Interface or UPI.

Samsung India today rolled out Samsung Rewards, an exciting new rewards program for Samsung Pay users. Every time users make a payment using Samsung Pay, they will earn reward points irrespective of where they spend and how they spend. Accumulated reward points can be redeemed for a variety of Samsung products and partner vouchers. To use Samsung Pay, consumers have to just tap the phone on a regular card reader and make payments.

Samsung Pay users will earn reward points on credit and debit card transactions, government-backed BHIM-UPI, digital wallets, bill payments and recharges.

The points earned through Samsung Rewards are over and above the Reward or Loyalty points users earn from credit and debit card spends, merchants, retailers, existing discounts and cashback offers that might be running at the time.

“Millions of consumers in India love the simple, secure and almost everywhere proposition of Samsung Pay, our revolutionary payments platform. With Samsung Rewards, we are attempting to drive user engagement and consumer loyalty for Samsung Pay. Samsung Rewards gives consumers in India another irresistible reason to adopt and continue using Samsung Pay,” said Sanjay Razdan, Senior Director, Samsung India

Samsung Pay works with three levels of security—fingerprint authentication, card tokenization and Samsung’s defence-grade mobile security platform, Samsung KNOX.

To incentivise users, Samsung Rewards will also offer users, the opportunity to earn Accelerated Rewards and Bonus points through various campaigns from time to time.

Samsung Rewards program in India is divided into 3 tiers, namely – Silver, Gold and Platinum, with Platinum being the highest earning tier. Users will automatically move up the tiers basis the transactions done on Samsung Pay. Simply put, higher the transactions, higher the earning. Samsung Rewards in India is supported on both – Samsung Pay and Samsung Pay Mini.

To avail these benefits and rewards, users will need to update to the latest version of the Samsung Pay application and register for Samsung Rewards.  The update will also allow Samsung Pay users to do their mobile prepaid recharges in addition to 55+ billers already available as a part of bill payments.

Samsung Pay already supports major wallets like Paytm and MobiKwik. With this new update, Samsung Pay Mini users will be able to add their FreeCharge wallet, allowing users to add money, make peer to peer and merchant payments.

Currently, users can pay their mobile, landline phone, electricity, gas, water and DTH bills using ‘Bill Payments’ on Samsung Pay. The ‘Bill Payments’ on Samsung Pay is facilitated by NPCI’s Bharat Bill Payments system (BBPS) – a one-stop payment platform for all utility bill payments.

“Consumer-centric innovation is at the forefront of our business. Since the launch of Samsung Pay, we have constantly innovated and added user-centric features such as UPI, wallets, Gift Cards and now Bill Payments. With the introduction of ‘Bill Payments’, consumers will be able to pay their utility bills seamlessly through Samsung Pay, set reminders and search favourite biller based on their current location. ‘Bill Payments’ is another ‘Make for India’ innovation that we believe will greatly benefit our consumers,” said Sanjay Razdan, Director, Samsung India,

Bill payment through Samsung Pay comes with a host of unique features and offers users a secure, hassle free and instant payment option on-the-go. Consumers can view due amount, details of previous bills and location-based suggested billers while paying bills through Samsung Pay. What’s more, features such as ‘reminders’ for bill payments make Samsung Pay platform an effective and interactive mode for bill payments.

Himadri Shekhar Chatterjee, President and Head – Transaction Banking, Axis Bank, said, “Samsung Pay is a key partner of Axis Bank in driving digital payments. With the addition of Utility Bill Payments in Samsung Pay, powered by Axis Bank, we see our partnership strengthening even further.”

Existing Samsung Pay users have already received update notification, which will enable them to use the service. With the addition of ‘Bill Payment’, Samsung Pay becomes a comprehensive payment platform offering a one-stop payment platform for its users.

Mr. HC Hong, President and CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia with Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog

Samsung Pay, Samsung Electronics’ flagship mobile payments service, made its debut in India today. The first commercial transaction of Samsung Pay in India was carried out in the presence of NITI Aayog CEO Mr. Amitabh Kant and Samsung Southwest Asia President and CEO Mr. HC Hong in front of a capacity audience that included key banking and card networks executives.

Samsung Pay is ‘Simple, Secure and Almost Everywhere’, making it a revolutionary payments system. Apart from allowing users in India to simply tap and ‘pay on the go’ using their registered cards, Samsung Pay has integrated digital wallet Paytm as well as the government’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) into its app. The integration of Samsung Pay with local payments solutions is in line with Samsung’s ‘Make for India’ commitment.

Mr. HC Hong, President and CEO, Samsung Southwest Asia, said, “Samsung Pay is an example of how we continue to push the boundaries of innovations to make life simpler and better for consumers. I am confident Samsung Pay will redefine digital payments and contribute to Digital India.”

Payments through Samsung Pay can be accepted at all places where a physical card will work. To launch Samsung Pay, a user will just have to swipe up on a compatible phone, select the card, authenticate using a fingerprint or PIN and bring the phone close to the PoS terminal.

Samsung Pay works with Samsung’s patented Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology as well as with Near Field Communication (NFC). Since a majority of PoS terminals in India are MST enabled, they will work seamlessly with Samsung Pay.

Since its launch in July 2015, Samsung Pay has rapidly expanded its service by supporting additional value-added features in multiple markets worldwide. With its launch in India, Samsung Pay is fully available in 12 global markets, including South Korea, the US, China, Spain, Singapore, Australia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Russia, Thailand and Malaysia.

Mr. Thomas Ko, Vice President and Global Manager, Samsung Pay said, “When we launched Samsung Pay, our goal was to enable consumers across the globe to make payments that are simple, secure and accepted almost everywhere. Over the past year and a half, this vision has evolved into building a complete digital wallet solution, allowing customers worldwide to not only make payments but also use membership and transit cards, receive deals and rewards and more.”

Samsung Pay has created a unique digital payment ecosystem by partnering with a number of banks and payment gateways. Partners include Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Cards and Standard Chartered Bank. Citibank India is a forthcoming issuer and its credit cards will be live on Samsung Pay shortly.

“Our insights show that convenience, security and acceptance are seen by consumers as the most important influencers when choosing among different digital payment options,” said Mr. Asim Warsi, Senior Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India. “With Samsung Pay, we give our consumers the smartest way to make digital transactions by far.”

Samsung Pay is currently available on Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy A5 (2016), Galaxy A7 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017).

Samsung Pay will also be available on the Samsung Gear S3 Smartwatch shortly, allowing users to pay with just the movement of their hand.