LG follows Apple, Samsung and Google into mobile payment market

LG is planning to launch its mobile payment service by December in a bid to compete in the global mobile payment market that is already dominated by tech majors such Google, Samsung and Apple. The service is likely to be called "LG Pay", for which the company registered a trademark both at its homeland, South Korea as well as the US.

"We will sign a deal with some of the country's major card companies before officially launching our mobile payment platform," said an LG official to the Korean Times. South Korea's two biggest credit card companies that expected to sign a deal with LG are Shinhan Card and KB Kookmin Card.

LG first made its plan to launch the payment service official, during the launch event of its first V series flagship smartphone, LG V10 that comes with a bunch of distinctive new features such as a second screen, dual front camera and manual video. Another significant addition is a new fingerprint sensor to unlock the device and turn on display simultaneously. The fingerprint sensor also works with Google's digital wallet, Android Pay but in US only.

Market analysts are quite sceptical about LG's new move. Noh Geun-chan, an analyst at HMC Investment and Securities, asserts that the competition for the mobile payment market is fierce, with a number of IT giants betting on similar services.

"Samsung Pay is getting more traction and more people are using the service," said Noh Geun-chan who believes that it would be tough for LG to get the momentum with its new service, which will face touch challenge from the rivals - Apple, Google and Samsung - who are aggressively promoting their payment services.

Recently, Apple rolled out its payment service in Canada and Australia. Along with this, it gained support from two major banks in the UK such as Tesco Bank and TSB. The company even added more than 90 additional banks, credit unions and financial institutions for US users.

Meanwhile, Samsung seems to be at work for a wider availability of its mobile service – Samsung Pay – which was initially made available for users in US and South Korea a few months ago, in countries such as China, Spain, and even UK, in the first quarter of 2016.