Samsung appears to be reacting to Apple’s recent announcement that it will bring the Pay platform to South Korea this year. But Samsung is not the only domestic provider seemingly taking precautions against what could become a great competitor in the mobile payment market in Korea. Naver Pay, Korea’s second-largest mobile payment provider, has just partnered with Samsung Pay, and both companies seek to strengthen each other’s businesses across the nation.
Samsung Electronics and Naver Financial signed a new business agreement to promote their mobile payment experiences, the companies announced earlier today. Samsung and Naver are to collaborate to make digital payments more convenient for their customers.
Thanks to this collaboration, Samsung Pay users in Korea will be able to make payments through Samsung Pay at online merchants that support the Naver Pay platform, including some 550,000 businesses featured on the Naver Smart Store.
Naver Financial will also benefit from this collaboration, as Naver Pay will gain access to offline payments through Samsung Pay’s MST network at all offline merchants that support the Samsung Pay platform across the country.
In other words, Samsung Pay has gained a stronger online presence in South Korea through the Naver Pay network, while Naver Pay has gained more ground in offline retail spaces thanks to Samsung’s implementation of the MST payment method. It’s a win-win scenario for both companies in anticipation of Apple’s arrival in the Korean financial market this year.
Naver Financial CEO said that the collaboration with Samsung allows 31.5 million Naver Pay users to experience the benefits of Samsung pay, both online and offline.
As of the end of 2022, Naver Pay and Samsung Pay were among the three largest mobile payment providers in South Korea, outperformed only by Kakao Pay. It’s unclear exactly when Apple will bring its Pay platform to South Korea. However, Hyundai Card, who has helped Apple make preparations, confirmed more details should be revealed in the coming months.
