Samsung Pay Boasts $30MM Transaction Volume, U.S. Launch Monday (Sept. 24, 2015)
Samsung is hailing its mobile payment service Samsung Pay a success in South Korea a month after it launched in the country, citing more than $30 million in transaction volume and over 1.5 million transactions. The company attributes part of the success to the wide acceptance among merchants.
Samsung Pay has approximately 36 percent active users thus far, with about 10 percent of users making Samsung Pay transactions daily. The company adds that 60 percent of transactions are being made with its Galaxy Note5 device. The service also is available on Galaxy S6, S6 edge and S6 edge+ devices.
Korean consumer adoption of Samsung Pay was immediate when it launched Aug. 20, with consumers registering more than 10,000 debit and credit cards with Samsung Pay on the day it launched, the total quickly jumping to 80,000 cards over the following four days.
Consumer uptake of the mobile payment service has transcended even Samsung’s expectations, according to Injong Rhee, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics and global head of Samsung Pay. “We knew Samsung Pay would be a game-changer in the mobile payments industry and now with the user data, we are seeing the greater impact it is having on consumer behavior and on the lifestyle of our customers.”
The payments industry will be keeping a close eye on how well Samsung Pay is received in the U.S. when it launches here Monday. The company also plans to bring the service to the U.K., Spain and China, but no timetable has been given. Samsung Pay will have to compete with similar services available in the U.S., such as Apple Pay and the newly released Android Pay. That said, after the usual fanfare that comes with anything Apple releases, consumer awareness of Apple Pay is high, but usage has been tepid.
Three-quarters of 1,434 smartphone users reported having heard of Apple Pay, according to a survey conducted by First Annapolis in the first half of 2015. Awareness jumps to nearly 90 percent among consumers that have an iPhone 6 (and therefore have the ability to use Apple Pay). However, of the nearly 400 survey respondents with an iPhone 6, only 22 percent report having used Apple Pay at least once. Among those that have tried Apple Pay at least once, just 18 percent say they use it more than once a month. For more on the payment service, be sure to check out the “Apple Pay Report” in the Fall 2015 edition of Pay Magazine coming soon.
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