Samsung Pay is officially three years old now. It launched back in 2015 with the Galaxy Note 5 – though it was announced with the Galaxy S6 launch, but it wasn’t actually available until later that year with the Galaxy Note 5. And in that three years, it has really taken off. Samsung is celebrating the fact that Samsung Pay is available on all inhabitable continents – North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. It has also launched in 25 markets and has also been used for a whopping 1.3 billion transactions worldwide.
In addition to those numbers, Samsung Pay is also highlighting the fact that it is compatible with around 2,000 banking and financial institutions around the world. Online payments are available in about 15 markets, Transit cards are in five markets and Loyalty and Membership cards are available in 20 markets. Samsung Rewards, which offers points for purchasing from specific merchants, is available in 10 markets, which includes the US, India, Malaysia and Spain. Finally, Samsung has added Bixby support to help make it easier to make payments with Samsung Pay.
Over the three years since launch, Samsung Pay has greatly expanded. It has continued to add more banks and financial institutions as well as adding more features. Though the big reason for Samsung Pay being so successful in these three years is arguably because of the fact that it uses MST technology. That means that Samsung Pay will work with any terminal that takes credit or debit cards. Effectively making almost every merchant in the world compatible with Samsung Pay. Now Samsung still only has its mobile payment service available on its flagship smartphones, including the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9, and a few other big smartphones like the Galaxy J7 Pro. Unfortunately it still has not launched on all Samsung smartphones or all Android devices. Hopefully that changes in the next three years for Samsung Pay.