Samsung Pay launches in India

Samsung Pay has just made its official debut in India, thus becoming the first big player to enter the local market and gaining an advantage over Apple and its similar service, Apple Pay. Tim Cook said last year that the company plans to launch Apple Pay in India, but they did not reach the local market yet.

In India, Samsung Pay integrates both Paytm and the government's Unified Payments Interface. The local digital payment ecosystem created by Samsung in India includes the following brands: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Cards and Standard Chartered Bank. Citibank India will be added soon as well.

Samsung Pay will soon be available on the Gear S3 smartwatch, next to the handsets currently supported - Galaxy S7/S7 Edge, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy A5 (2016), Galaxy A7 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2017) and Galaxy A7 (2017). Next to India, the service is fully available in markets like China, Singapore, Australia, Russia, South Korea, or the US.