Samsung and Naver announced that they have reached an agreement on strategic cooperation in order to combine efforts to maintain the leading positions of these companies in the South Korean mobile payments market.

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The firms have agreed to partner at a strategic level ahead of the launch of Apple Pay in South Korea. The exact date of the launch of the payment system of the American technology giant has not yet been announced, but it is known that this will happen in the coming months.

Combining efforts on a strategic scale of two leading players in the field of mobile payments – Naver Pay is the number one online payment service provider, and Samsung Pay is the leading offline digital transaction service with a 23.5% share in the South Korean market – will create synergy, which will entail a higher level of convenience for users.

As a result of the implementation of the strategic cooperation project, 31.5 million Naver Pay users will be able to make payments from their mobile phone in any store that accepts credit card transactions using magnetic secure Transfer (MST), the key technology of Samsung Pay autonomous mobile payments.

According to the results of the upcoming partnership between the two companies, Samsung Pay customers will be able to make financial operations in more than 550 thousand online stores affiliated with Naver Pay.

Currently, in South Korea, not only Samsung Pay is directing efforts to maintain its position due to the imminent appearance of a new Apple Pay player on the market, which is likely to change the current alignment of forces. Several large card companies, including Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Lotte, Hana, Woori, and NH NongHyup, have reached an agreement to create a common Open Pay service.

With the help of Open Pay, users of one of the card firms will be able to use the mobile payment platforms of other companies participating in the partner project. This solution is aimed at increasing the level of relevance and the degree of universality of payment instruments in preparation for the introduction of Apple Pay on the market. Companies realize that the competition process will become much tougher after the launch of the service of a technology giant.

Preliminary information says that at the initial stage of operation in South Korea, Apple Pay will be available only to Hyundai Card customers. The auto giant intends to simplify the procedure for making payments to drivers in vehicles.