Korean electronics giant Samsung is reportedly planning to make full use of the cashless economy narrative of the Modi government’s demonetisation move and could launch its own electronic payment scheme called the Samsung Pay.
According to a report in Mashable which quotes a source as saying that the digital payment service by Samsung will be launched in India in the first few months of 2017. According to the report, Samsung has tied up with American Express and looking to explore opportunities with other big firms like Visa and MasterCard.
Samsung had reportedly started working on the payments service in 2016 itself and in 2017, the Samsung Pay app was seen in its Galaxy Note 5 smartphone for which an update was launched in India.
This service by Samsung comes after the payment portals rolled out by Android and Google, but it requires the NFC support in terminals which most point of sale devices in the country, don’t have. Hence, it will be difficult for Samsung to sell the feature here. According to the Mashable report, the feature could be available only to a limited number of consumers, as only high-end devices will support the application.
Meanwhile, however many the number of issues with it, Samsung wants to make the maximum use of the note ban situation in India, especially since most of the big payment portals have been seeing huge traffic.
Additionally, Google is also planning to bring a payment solution in India, though there is no time frame yet, according to company CEO Sundar Pichai. Meanwhile, Apple is mum on its decision to bring the Pay service here in India but with his visits and plans here suggesting many new announcements, expect the Apple Pay to launch here too.
By Baishakhi Dutta
