Samsung buys LoopPay ... ApplePay competitor
Samsung Makes Move Into Mobile Payments
Excerpt:
Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday that it had acquired a U.S. startup whose technology is likely to underpin the South Korean technology giant’s new mobile-payment service. The deal to buy LoopPay Inc. of Burlington, Mass., represents the clearest signal that Samsung intends to compete aggressively with Apple Inc. in trying to change consumer behavior at the checkout counter. For Samsung, the LoopPay acquisition marks a further foray into building up an ecosystem of software and services that can set its smartphones apart from an increasingly crowded field of handset makers running Google ’s Android platform.Comment: LoopPay site
More: Did Samsung Just Ace Apple Pay?:
ReplyDeleteThe competition between Apple and Samsung has just gotten fiercer — this time it’s for the mobile payments grand prize.
Samsung announced yesterday (Feb. 18) that it had acquired LoopPay, a mobile commerce platform that uses its Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) patented technology to turn existing mag stripe readers into mobile contactless receivers and enables LoopPay digital wallet users to use their LoopPay wallets at more than 90 percent of merchant establishments today. The LoopPay technology was the subject of a PYMNTS.com “Breakthrough Series” serial in 2014.
As part of the deal, LoopPay founders Will Graylin and George Wallner will be working in collaboration with Samsung’s mobile division on customer loyalty and customer service matters as it relates to mobile payments.
“This acquisition accelerates our vision to drive and lead innovation in the world of mobile commerce. Our goal has always been to build the smartest, most secure, user-friendly mobile wallet experience, and we are delighted to welcome LoopPay to take us closer to this goal,” JK Shin, president and head of IT and mobile division at Samsung, said in a company news release.
LoopPay’s wallet also enables any card with a mag stripe on it, including gift and private label cards as well as loyalty and membership cards. LoopPay’s technology mimics the swipe of a physical mag stripe card, so merchants also pay card present rates for LoopPay transactions.
Why Samsung Is Entering The Mobile Payments Fray.
ReplyDeleteI think the strength of LoopPay is that it is Apple independent (not vendor dependent). The weakness in my view (but I find it intriguing) is that it relies on the stripe. We need to get away from the stripel
Off my radar as an investor but Samsumg (SSNLF) trades at $ 1,200 per share! SSNLF
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