Samsung Electronics said Wednesday it has officially rolled out its mobile payment tool Samsung Pay in South Africa, bringing the total number of countries where Samsung Pay is available to 24 around the globe.

Samsung Pay initially launched three years ago is a mobile payment platform that works on typical credit card readers based on magnetic secure transmission technology and also supports near field communication payments.

The mobile wallet platform now holds ties with 2,000 financial companies, with the total number of global payments hitting 1.3 billion cases. As of the end of April, more than 10 million Koreans are subscribed to the service.

Samsung Pay supports offline payments in all markets and online payments in 15 markets including Australia, Brazil and Switzerland, transportation card systems in five markets including China, Hong Kong and Singapore, membership cards in 20 markets including Canada, France and Mexico. Money deposit and withdrawing through an ATM is also supported by the platform in four markets including Korea, Russia and Vietnam.

In Hong Kong, Samsung Pay holds partnership with Octopus to allow users to pay bus fares and buy products at stores with Samsung Pay. In Brazil, Samsung Pay supports corporate welfare cards available at stores and cinemas. Other partners include PayPal in the U.S., Alipay and WeChat Pay in China and Payco in Korea.

Samsung Electronics said it will continue efforts to provide more convenient payment experiences to users, including connecting Samsung Pay to the company`s artificial intelligence program, Bixby.

By Hwang Hyung-gyu and Minu Kim

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