Rumored Samsung-Alipay Partnership to be Announced Friday

Samsung is preparing to partner with Alipay to promote its Samsung Pay platform in China, according to a new report from Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

Citing industry sources, the report asserts that Samsung has been in negotiations with Alipay’s parent company, Alibaba, and that the company’s will announce details of their partnership on Friday. One particular source explained that the companies have come to an arrangement whereby Samsung Pay users will be able to make “offline purchases using Alipay’s QR codes and barcode scanners.”

That doesn’t quite explain how Alipay stands to benefit from the arrangement, nor does it appear to be of great value to Samsung Pay given that the platform’s MST technology should enable compatibility with virtually all POS readers, including swipe-based card readers, in the country. But whatever the particulars, the partnership is significant due to the size and importance of both companies, particularly with respect to Alipay’s status as a major and longstanding mPayment platform in China with over 400 million users.

That market dominance led many to speculate that Apple Pay, which launched in China ahead of Samsung Pay, would fail to gain traction in the country; but the newcomer proved to be a success. Samsung hasn’t yet announced official statistics regarding the performance of Samsung Pay in the country, but it’s quite possible that the rumored partnership with Alipay, if true, will give it a significant boost.

Source: Yonhap News Agency