Samsung announced today that it is partnering with Alipay to expand Samsung Pay in China. To be more precise, the Korean giant is partnering with Ant Financial Services Group, which is owned by Alipay.
Alipay is the third largest payment processing service in China, with a userbase of over 450 million. This partnership will instantly make Samsung Pay compatible with over 600,00 retail stores in the country. Alipay is a digital wallet-like service, so you can use the balance in the wallet to pay for your purchases, instead of your credit or debit card being charged. To use Alipay in Samsung Pay, you will first have to register your Alipay account into Samsung Pay. Then, you can use Samsung Pay to pay for your purchases at supported retailers by bringing up the Alipay QR code which will then be scanned by the merchant. Samsung had first launched Samsung Pay in China towards the end of March. The launch was made possible by Samsung partnering with China’s UnionPay. At launch, Samsung Pay supported debit and credit cards from 9 banks in the country, with support for other major banks in the pipeline. In China, Samsung Pay is supported on the Galaxy S7, S7 edge, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy Note 5, and the 2016 Galaxy A5, A7, and A9.