Samsung Pay: China to get mobile platform in March with Australia, Spain, UK and others in line

Samsung has announced that it will be launching Samsung Pay in China in March, which will be followed by launches in Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Spain and the UK. The mobile payment platform has recorded transactions over $500m (£347) during its first six months of existence from around 5 million users who are only in the US and South Korea as of now.

"Since its introduction last year, Samsung Pay has changed the way people pay and use their smartphones. We've already seen significant consumer adoption and we continue to see great momentum. Our aim is to expand Samsung Pay to even more locations around the world, and our customers should expect to see more features in the year to come," said Injong Rhee, EVP and head of R&D, Software and Services of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics in a statement.

China is not a surprising debut choice outside the US and South Korea as the Chinese electronic payments market is flourishing. Smartphone users there have been using the mobile payment platform for quite a while now not just for online shopping but also to order taxis, pay bills and even invest in wealth management funds.

The announcement also noted that the payment service will also be launched in Canada contrary to some earlier speculations that it will not. Samsung said four major payment networks, American Express, China UnionPay, MasterCard, and Visa will form the backbone of the digital platform. They also provided a list of financial partners for countries across the world. To see the full list click here.

Samsung Pay is currently available on select Galaxy devices as the S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, Note5, Galaxy A5 and A7. The company may extend the service to its other models along with the much-awaited Galaxy S7 line-up that will be unveiled at the MWC 2016.

Mobile payment platforms aided by smartphone manufacturers are slowly catching up with other companies with Apple and LG also pushing their platforms. While Apple Pay has already been launched in select countries LG Pay is expected to debut in the second half of the year.