ZDNet is reporting that UnionPay has launched NFC based payment service in China in a collaboration with Samsung. UnionPay, also known as China UnionPay (CUP), is China's only domestic bank card company with around 80 percent market share in offline payment. UnionPay users can immediately start using the NFC based payment service after they save the card information through UnionPay's mobile application. There are over 3.6 million Samsung smartphones in China with NFC connectivity, including the Galaxy Note 4, the Galaxy Note 3, and the Galaxy S5. So, Samsung is expecting a large slice of revenue through this collaboration, though they have declined to comment on the commission rates.
According to a research by the Samsung Economic Research Institute, when card companies collaborate with smartphone vendors, the card company will receive a smaller commission when compared to credit cards. However, the widespread usage of mobile phones means worthwhile returns for both, the card company and the mobile phone vendor.
“We'll cooperate more with UnionPay, not just for NFC payment, but all financial services that use a mobile device“, said a spokesperson from Samsung.
