Dive Brief:
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Samsung is getting ready to launch its Samsung Pay system, leveraging its acquisition earlier this year of payments startup LoopPay.
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LoopPay’s technology allows the use of traditional magnetic-strip point-of-sale readers as well as Near Field Communications technology at POS systems.
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Users have been notified that the company’s two-year-old Samsung Wallet will be shut down June 30, and Samsung Pay will be introduced first in the U.S. and South Korea.
Dive Insight:
Samsung’s LoopPay (for which it reportedly spent some $250 million to buy) is seen as having great potential because of its ability to be used with existing point-of-sales technology. A loop of wire that mimics an actual credit card allows it to be used at retailers that are behind the times when it comes to mobile payments.
The system has a higher potential to take on the ever-expanding Apple Pay than Samsung’s Wallet has. The trouble with it, though, as reported by some users, is that the clerks at many retailers aren’t aware of LoopPay’s usefulness. It seems Samsung needs to up its message to help consumers and retailers alike get the word on Samsung Pay if it ever wants to have a chance to eclipse Apple Pay.
"We have tried to make Samsung Wallet a successful service that would help users throughout their daily lives and help our partners reach their customers in new ways," a message on the Samsung Wallet website said. "Unfortunately, the usage rate of Samsung Wallet was not what anyone expected.”