Samsung Pay Records Major Loss In First Year

Samsung’s fledgling mobile payment business recorded a loss of $16.8 million (£11.8m) during its first year of existence as the Korean manufacturer looked to establish the platform as a competitor to Apple Pay.

Samsung Pay recorded sales of $4.12 million (£2.89m), with its debt and net worth coming in $23.6 million (£16.5m) and $10.5 million (£7.37m) respectively.

Ready to go

Much of these losses and the debt is thought to come from Samsung’s purchase of LoopPay, the company that it bought for $229 million (£161m) in February 2015 and relaunched in August of the same year as Samsung Pay.

Samsung Pay has attracted five million registered users and processed $500 million in payments since the launch of the service in South Korea and the US last year.

“Samsung’s pragmatism does not stop on just simply selling one-time hardware, but it is going to actively push for M&A and make investments if it sees businesses that can continuously create profits.” said a Samsung official. “Samsung Pay and VR (Virtual Reality) both correspond to this pragmatism.”

At Mobile World Congress (MWC) last month, Samsung finally confirmed that Samsung Pay would be coming to the UK in 2016, although the company neglected to provide a specific launch date, as part of the global rollout of the service.

The platform will be supported by the Samsung’s newly-announced Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge smartphones, set to go on sale in the UK on March 11, as well as the Galaxy S6, S6 Edge and Gear S2 smartwatch.

Samsung estimates that Apple Pay reaches only ten percent of merchants in the US alone and believes there is a huge opportunity to be taken advantage of.

All clued up on mobile payments? Try our quiz!

Mike Moore

Michael Moore joined TechWeek Europe in January 2014 as a trainee before graduating to Reporter later that year. He covers a wide range of topics, including but not limited to mobile devices, wearable tech, the Internet of Things, and financial technology.

Recent Posts

UK’s CMA Readies Cloud Sector “Behavioural” Remedies – Report

Targetting AWS, Microsoft? British competition regulator soon to announce “behavioural” remedies for cloud sector

4 hours ago

Former Policy Boss At X Nick Pickles, Joins Sam Altman Venture

Move to Elon Musk rival. Former senior executive at X joins Sam Altman's venture formerly…

7 hours ago

Bitcoin Rises Above $96,000 Amid Trump Optimism

Bitcoin price rises towards $100,000, amid investor optimism of friendlier US regulatory landscape under Donald…

8 hours ago

FTX Co-Founder Gary Wang Spared Prison

Judge Kaplan praises former FTX CTO Gary Wang for his co-operation against Sam Bankman-Fried during…

9 hours ago