Think Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay; details of service rollout are scarce
South Korean company LG, known for its handsets, televisions and other electronics, announced it plans to enter the mobile payment market with LG Pay.
The move is set to allow LG to compete against industry heavyweights like Google, which has Android Pay; Apple, which was first to roll out its mobile payment app; and Samsung, which brought Samsung Pay to North America in October.
Since the August launch of Samsung Pay in South Korea, company officials said the service has recorded more than $30 million in volume across 1.5 million transactions, with 10% of active users recording daily transactions on Samsung Pay.
Following the U.S. launch, Samsung Pay is scheduled to go into service next in the U.K., Spain and China. The service is currently available on the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+ and Note 5 smartphones. On the financial side, the application works with American Express, Visa or MasterCard tied to accounts at Bank of America, Citi or U.S. Bank, which is a smaller list of card/bank combos than those offered by Apple Pay and Android Pay.
Details like service area and availability as it relates to LG Pay haven’t been made public; the company announced the new service offering in a two-sentence post to Facebook: “It’s official! We have partnered with Shinhan Card and KB Kookmin Card to prepare for the launch of LG Pay.”
All three of the existing mobile payment platforms work in a similar fashion. A user will input credit card or other banking information into the app, which can be quickly read by specialized point-of-sale devices.
