On Tuesday (Dec. 8), millions of Korean commuters began using their Android phones to pay for their subway ride using Samsung Pay, Samsung Electronics announced.
The “Samsung Pay Transportation Card Service” allows commuters to pay for their bus and train rides using their smartphones.
The South Korean transportation service, which until now relied on travel cards, such as T-Money and Cashbee, has now amalgamated the two to provide the Samsung-enabled service, which has the capability to import either of the two payment forms under its service and allows users to pay by tap.
Since Samsung Pay’s launch in Korea in August, the company has surpassed $212 million in transaction volume, spent on over 10 million transactions, the company reported.
In the coming months, the Korean electronics giant now plans to partner with other credit card companies to reach a wider user base. “We plan to extend our partnerships so that we can move even closer to a world where we can easily and safely make payments without having to carry around a wallet,” a Samsung official said.
For now, to propel usage of Samsung Pay among riders, T-Money and Cashbee are offering cash back and recharge fee waivers. The idea of offering deals to propel usage, however, is more focused towards helping Samsung Pay boost its usage rates among commuters than to see a bump in contactless payments in the public transport system, which is widely used and popular.
The company said that the launch of its service would only help further eradicate the friction of transactions in a busy place, like the local subway, and that it is now working on partnering with other credit card companies.
According to reports, Samsung plans on expanding its payments service to other countries, including the U.K., China and Spain, in the first quarter of 2016.
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