Samsung Pay Makes its Australian Debut With New Value Focus
Samsung Pay’s arrival in Australia would be exciting enough as it sits for mobile payments enthusiasts in the region, and beyond, since it’s an advancement of the entire industry.
With its arrival in Australia, however, it’s bringing some new “value-added” features that make it especially important.
Naturally, Samsung is eager to offer—as its vice president and head of global business development Elle Kim describes—a complete replacement for the wallet, moving into things like gift cards and doing some other exciting things.
Kim referenced Samsung’s recent move into the connected device sector in the United States, and how users can shop directly from a refrigerator to order groceries.
Samsung Pay, therefore, is seen as the first step into that particular foray.
Thus Samsung, in its arrival in Australia, is working with local banks to integrate Samsung Pay more readily into current operations.
Samsung is eager to be viewed as a complementary good, not a competitive proposition, using its systems to add value to the current infrastructure.
Essentially, as Kim noted, if Samsung Pay is just a tap-and-pay system, users will realize that their cards already do that, so there’s not much reason to bring in Samsung Pay.
That’s why Samsung Pay is actively looking to add value to a wider ecosystem instead of posing a competitive threat on its own.
Samsung Pay is now available in five markets, and it will be available in Singapore directly with further growth set to arrive by the end of 2016.
Here, Samsung demonstrates the biggest hurdle it must overcome in order to make real headway in whatever market it opens up in. It has to prove that it’s sufficiently different from the huge array of other options already in place, and that it’s also sufficiently worthwhile.
It’s one thing to be different, but if the difference doesn’t bring sufficient value, then users won’t leave the systems already being used.
Any mobile payment system must meet that same issue and beat it in order to succeed, and Samsung Pay is no different, heading into the Australian market.
Samsung Pay is working hard to demonstrate the added value it brings to the Australian market, but it might have a tough sale convincing potential users that it has that value.