Samsung Electronics Friday announced it released Samsung Pay in Italy, marking the 21st country to release the mobile payment system on smart devices. In January, the service was introduced in Mexico.

The e-wallet solution can be used on compatible devices including Samsung’s wearables alongside Galaxy handsets. Gear S3, Gear Sport and new phones Galaxy S9 and S9+ are eligible.

The South Korean tech giant first launched the mobile payment service in August 2015 in Korea and in September in the United States and gradually expanded the scope to cover China, Spain, Singapore, Australia, Brazil and Russia in 2016 and Thailand, Malaysia, India, Sweden, UAE, Switzerland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, United Kingdom and Vietnam in 2017.

The Samsung Pay app consists of three security levels: fingerprint or iris authentication, card tokenization to create virtual transaction data, and Samsung Knox to provide real-time device monitoring to prevent fraud.

The mobile payment app still brings Samsung a low level of profitability compared to a credit card service but the company’s growing presence in the payment gateway system could lead to a loyal pool of customers in the future. It also offers huge growth potential thanks to the rapid expansion of mobile commerce worldwide.

By Hwang Hyung-gyu and Minu Kim

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