Samsung Acquires Apple Pay Rival LoopPay

Samsung today announced plans to purchase LoopPay, in an effort to compete with Apple's Apple Pay payments service. The two companies were in previously talks over a potential partnership in December for a payment system that would rival Apple Pay.

LoopPay's technology stores payment information from a credit or debit card's magnetic stripe, transmitting payment details to card readers in lieu of a physical card. Because it works over a magnetic field, LoopPay is compatible with 90 percent of existing card readers and does not require merchants to support NFC as Apple Pay does.

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Currently, LoopPay works through an app and a standalone hardware device (a case is one of the company's most popular LoopPay offerings), but Samsung may build the technology directly into phones in the future. With LoopPay's technology, upcoming Samsung devices may be able to replace credit cards much in the same way Apple Pay does, with Samsung customers able to wave their phones at payment terminals instead of swiping a card.

According to Samsung, LoopPay will provide the company's customers with a "seamless, safe, and reliable" mobile wallet solution. LoopPay already markets itself as an alternative to Apple Pay, and it's likely Samsung will build upon the technology to create a payment service that even more closely mirrors Apple's offering.

"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," said JK Shin, President and Head of IT and Mobile Division at Samsung Electronics.

The current version of LoopPay doesn't have the same security features that Apple Pay offers, like tokenization, but it does have some benefits, including the ability to store IDs, loyalty, and membership cards along with payment cards.

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Top Rated Comments

MartinAppleGuy Avatar
131 months ago
Monkey see, monkey do. What else do you expect?
Score: 60 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Patriot24 Avatar
131 months ago
Hey guys, remember CurrentC?

:rolleyes:
Score: 55 Votes (Like | Disagree)
joshuaclinton Avatar
131 months ago
One month after launch: "LoopPay hacked, exposing millions of users' sensitive information."
Score: 50 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DougTheImpaler Avatar
131 months ago
Samsung wants to own the next Apple Pay but in reality they'll just have another also-ran like Google Wallet.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
simon48 Avatar
131 months ago
Since it uses magnetism doesn't this mean it won't work with chip and pin cards? So, Samsung is so scared of Apple that they bought tech that'll be outdated in a couple years?
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AlecZ Avatar
131 months ago
This is pretty different. It's essentially the same as using the actual cards. I like Apple Pay's token system a lot better.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)