Samsung Pay launched last year with the Galaxy Note 5 (it was announced with the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, but didn’t actually launch until September, after the Galaxy Note 5 launched). Samsung’s main differentiator with their mobile payment system over Apple Pay and even Android Pay, is the fact that theirs works with older terminals, and not just those with NFC. Using the Magnetic Secure Transmission or MST, users are able to tap their phone and have it pay for their items with ease. The reason Samsung was able to do this was because they bought LoopPay back in February of 2015. LoopPay and Samsung formed “Samsung Pay Corp” which just reported their audited earnings for 2015, and they don’t look so good.
Samsung Pay actually lost around $16.8 million in 2015. Now while that sounds like a huge loss for Samsung, and it is in reality, you have to remember that Samsung Pay was not available until around September. And in September, it only launched in a handful of markets. With it continuing to expand in 2016, it’ll likely turn around. Samsung also spent the majority of the year getting merchants on-board as well as banks and card companies, so that their customers can actually use it. Samsung also notes that because they are using MST for making payments, they have cemented a path for growth in the coming years. Something that Android Pay and even Apple Pay are unable to do. Samsung has also made Samsung Pay super easy to use, and have made countless incentives for new users to jump on-board and use Samsung Pay.
As of right now, there are over 5 million Samsung Pay users in South Korea and the US. Which Samsung says that Samsung Pay is responsible for about 5 million sales of the Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 units. A bit tough to pin point the reason many buy their smartphone, but it’s hard to believe that 5 million people bought a new smartphone from Samsung solely due to it having Samsung Pay. Samsung notes that those six smartphones have accounted for $2.59 billion in sales.