The Chinese market is flooded with a lot of low-budget smartphones and services, which makes it quite a challenging place for even companies the size of Samsung to make ground in. However, it (the Chinese market) still remains one of the most lucrative smartphone markets thus Samsung aims to establish local partnerships in order to make progress in this market.
Sometime last year, Samsung announced a deal with China’s largest online payment platform, Alipay, in order to make the service available via Samsung Pay. Now, Samsung is striking a similar alliance with WeChat Pay in line with the launch of the Galaxy Note 8 in China.
DJ Koh, Chief of Samsung’s mobile division said
“We will make a continued effort to earn trust and love from Chinese consumers based on our technological prowess.”
With this alliance, Samsung Pay is now compatible with two of the largest mobile payment platforms in China and if all goes according to plan, this will boost Samsung Pay usage in the country. In addition, the Korean giant collaborated with a bike-sharing startup in China (Mobike). To use this service, Galaxy Note 8 users have to switch on their camera to scan the QR codes of Mobike bicycles.
Samsung has always intended for its smartwatches to be compatible with the Samsung Pay service, thus, sooner or later, we will hopefully have this service on Tizen smartwatches (Gear S2, Gear S3, and Gear Sport). It is too early to access the impact of this alliance, however, in a couple of months, it would be seen if it is helping to regain Samsung’s lost glory in the Chinese smartphone market.
