Samsung Pay is getting a new look in the U.S. as part of a long-term goal to move beyond payments technology to broader commerce platform.
“We will start to add new functions that, traditionally, you had to carry in your wallet,” Thomas Ko, global general manager of Samsung Pay, said in an interview ahead of the conference. “All of those things we’ll actually put into Samsung Pay and you’ll be able to replace the wallet. Some of those functions are being offered already,” like loyalty memberships and gift cards, “but we’ll keep doing more and launch additional services.”
The mobile payments service announced a slew of new features this week at the Money 2020 conference in Las Vegas: location-based deals at nearby retailers, in-app payments and MasterPass payments. It also announced international expansion to three new markets.
The upgrade comes just over a year after the mobile payments service launched in the
Beginning next month, a deals feature within the Samsung Pay app will give U.S. users access to discounts and coupons at nearby retailers that are instantly redeemable. Consumers in the U.S. next month will also be able to checkout with Samsung Pay when shopping within select merchant apps.
Samsung Pay also announced its forthcoming global expansion into Malaysia, Thailand and Russia. Ko said it has been running tests there for three or four weeks and expects to roll out the service by the end of the year, bringing its presence to 10 countries since its initial launch in South Korea in August 2015. He also hinted at plans for further expansion announcements in 2017.
