Samsung Pay takes on PayPal in P2P payment

[THE INVESTOR] Tech giant Samsung Electronics is pushing itself to the limit to take the lead in the global mobile payment solutions market.

It recently beefed up the security of its mobile payment solution with the iris scanner fitted in the Galaxy Note 7 and had the Samsung Pay software of the Galaxy Gear S2 smartwatch updated to be compatible with both near-field communication and traditional magnetic terminals.

As has been reported since last year, Samsung is also said to be planning to add a person-to-person, or P2P, transaction function to the mobile payment solution this year.

P2P money transaction services have recently been adopted by some mobile wallet operators and mobile messenger firms, including Amazon, Facebook and WeChat.

Apple has reportedly been trying to fit its payment solution Apple Pay with the P2P payment system.

PayPal’s P2P service Venmo has been garnering popularity in the US and Japan, changing the way people transfer money to each other.

PayPal recently said the Venmo service saw the amount of transactions processed through the app increase 140 percent on-year to $4 billion in the second quarter.

In Korea, Kakao, operator of mobile messenger KakaoTalk, and start-up Toss are spearheading the mobile P2P payment sector.

“With no single company taking the lead in the mobile payment solution market, the adoption of the P2P function, if deployed, could give a boost to Samsung in increasing its presence in the market,” an industry watcher said.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)