A sales assistant checks Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S5 smartphones at a shop in Seoul
IN PHOTO: A sales assistant checks Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S5 smartphones at a shop in Seoul July 29, 2014. South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Thursday reported a 24.6 percent fall in second-quarter operating profit, in line with guidance, due to disappointing returns from its smartphone business. Picture taken July 29, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

Samsung, the world’s top smartphone maker, seeks hope through mobile payments to recover from market share losses to competitions. It confirmed its imminent expansion in the U.K. after it officially heralded partnership with the digital security firm Gemalto in a press release.

“We are excited to work with Gemalto as they offer their hub services as a secure payment card digitisation solution for Samsung Pay,” stated Injong Rhee, Samsung Electronics Executive, in a press release .The two companies are to actively work with payment issuers to roll out Samsung Pay in Europe.

IT and Research company Gartner says Samsung's global smartphone market share fell to 21.9 percent in April-June from 26.2 percent a year earlier. Samsung is planning to launch new mid and low-tier smartphones compatible with Samsung Pay next year to offer an exclusive service that users cannot get elsewhere. Explaining that it is their way to protect pricing power even for low-end or mid-range phones.

Its payment system offers its users a wide range of physical merchant compatibility by incorporating magnetic secure transmission (MST) into all of its eligible devices. Having MST means Samsung Pay can be used anywhere a traditional magnetic-stripe credit card is accepted. This is on top of the NFC chip that can be used for more secure transactions, a feature that remains to be the only means that Apple and Android Pays are currently limited to.

Rhee told Reuters that the company is now focused more on acquiring new users rather than making money. He further voiced out of the additional measures such as online payments that the firm is considering with the Samsung Pay’s expansion to China and Europe.

“We're looking at every company that could give some new element of differentiation for our devices," he said to Reuters.

Since its launch in South Korea, Samsung says the service is beating internal expectations by averaging 25,000 new users and more than $620,000 in transactions per day. Samsung Pay is set to be available in the US in Sept. 28 this year.

Samsung Pay: Be the Master of Payments (Credit: YouTube/Samsung Biz Mobile)

Contact the writer at feedback@ibtimes.com.au or let us know what you think below.

RELATED STORIES