Samsung Pay to launch in Singapore on June 16
Samsung Pay will officially launch in Singapore next Thursday, June 16, Samsung has announced, where it will compete directly with rival Apple Pay.
Samsung said it has partnered up with MasterCard, Visa, Citibank, DBS/POSB, OCBC Bank, and Standard Chartered there in preparation for the start of the service.
The tech giant said it performed education sessions in major stores in Singapore and the service will be available in 40 major franchises there, which includes supermarkets, convenience stores, department stores, beauty shops, restaurants, clothes stores, electronics stores, and travel agencies.
Its main competitor will be Apple Pay, which started service there in April, and added support for MasterCard last month.
Singapore becomes the fifth country to get the mobile payment service and the first nation for Southeast Asia. Samsung Pay arrived in Spain earlier this month.
The payment service launched in China in March, where Samsung partnered with local counterpart AliPay to increase availability there. It was launched first in its home nation of South Korea in August 2015, and a month later in the US last September
In South Korea Samsung Pay hit 1 trillion won in transactions last month.
Australia is also expected to get Samsung Pay next week, though the company has not confirmed a date for an official kickoff.