Visa recently issued a statement confirming that the collaboration with Samsung Pay is beginning to show its benefits to end consumers, specifically Visa Checkout users who are now able to use the platforms in order to securely conduct payments at more than 350,000 Visa Checkout merchants in the United States. The joint partnership between the two companies was initially announced in April and the service went live on November 1st.
According to Visa, Samsung Pay is leaning on Visa Checkout’s open platform and streamlined APIs in order to allow its users to make payments using fingerprint authentication. Furthermore, a Visa Checkout username and password will no longer be required while using Samsung Pay for online purchases, and instead, the authentication process will be done through the push of a co-branded Visa Checkout and Samsung Pay button. Having said that, existing Visa Checkout users who also happen to utilize Samsung Pay are now able to enjoy a more streamlined checkout process for online purchases at various locations throughout the country.
Compatibility with Visa Checkout arrives to Samsung Pay roughly two weeks after the credit card company brought the service to Google’s own online payment platform – Android Pay – in mid-October. As for Samsung Pay, the service continued to expand into more regions over the past couple of years, and this year alone it was released in a total of eight additional countries beyond the existing ten regions, including Thailand, Malaysia, India, Sweden, UAE, and the United Kingdom. The platform was first launched in South Korea in mid-2015 and arrived in the United States a month later. China, Spain, Australia, Singapore, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Russia, and Canada have also joined Samsung Pay in that particular order throughout 2016, and the platform is rumored to expand its availability even further in 2018, although as of this writing, there are no official details in regards to where Samsung Pay could be launched next. There have been some reports to suggest that the platform may be launching in Italy early next year but Samsung has yet to make any announcements on the matter, though more details on the rollout of the service will likely follow shortly.