Samsung Pay doesn't have any competition from Apple in South Korea, but this will apparently change soon. The South Korean government is planning to invest $133 billion on a new initiative called ‘K-New Deal,' which is meant to help bolster projects across the digital and green economy sectors.
The project is also looking to improve South Korea's NFC infrastructure for mobile transactions and create a better platform for MZ generation customers. According to a fresh report, Apple Pay will eventually be released in South Korea as part of the K-New Deal strategy.
Why isn't Apple Pay available in South Korea yet?
According to previous news from the Korean media, card issuers in the country have attempted to bring Apple Pay to South Korea since 2015, but Apple's demands were too steep. This problem continues to this day, and last year, some domestic card issuers have reportedly stopped negotiating with Apple altogether because of the US company's unreasonable fees.
But judging by the more recent report, South Korean card issuers and Apple might be working on a new strategy under the umbrella of the K-New Deal program. There's no telling when Apple Pay could be launching in Korea, but if these plans go through, we're likely to hear more about the platform's launch in the coming months.
It will be interesting to see if Samsung will try to counter Apple's move in South Korea, but either way, Apple's eventual arrival poses a big threat for Samsung, the latter of which was protected indirectly by the aforementioned disagreements between Apple and card issuers.
