Samsung has tapped PayPal to process payments for apps, music, books and video through Samsung Hub, the company’s clone of Google’s own app-and-media store, Google Play. PayPal will be an option for both developers and consumers on Samsung devices.
See also: Why Samsung Is Cloning Google Play On Its Smartphones
The companies present the partnership as a meeting of behemoths. Samsung touts its 30% global market share in smartphones while PayPal claims that it will do $20 billion in “mobile” payments this year, up from $14 billion last year.
PayPal, however, likes to stretch the definition of mobile payments with these types of numbers. PayPal’s mobile payments are more like online payments that originate on a mobile device, not so much smartphone-based payments for physical goods in brick-and-mortar stores. (Though it’s trying hard to expand on the latter.)
Samsung also has its own digital wallet—the Samsung Wallet—that’s similar to the PayPal app, the Square Wallet and Apple’s Passport app, that can store tickets or membership cards.
See also: How PayPal’s App Update Could Reinvent The Company
Samsung continues to try to differentiate its App and Hub products on its devices. Developers can port their existing Android apps from Google Play to the Samsung Hub or build apps directly for Samsung. Samsung is holding a developer conference later this month in San Francisco for app makers interested in building specifically for its devices.
PayPal for Samsung Apps and Samsung Hub will launch first in Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom. Integration for the United States is promised soon.
