Samsung Aims To Expand Contactless Payment Reach

Samsung is looking to expand its contactless payment reach, as they have just announced earlier today that they’re joining the Contactless Companion Platform (CCP) initiative, along with ecosystem partners Smartlink and Ingenico. 

Like Android Pay and Apple Pay, CCP relies exclusively on near field communications (NFC), and not Samsung’s proprietary Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST), to deliver payment information from a user’s device to a point-of-sale payment terminal. CCP would help Samsung expand the reach of contactless payments beyond Samsung Pay-compatible devices.

Potential payment devices could include anything from a payment card to a rubber wristband, a keyfob or a piece of jewelry. Swiss watchmakers Winwatch and Montfort, for example, both recently showed traditional wristwatches with the CCP chip embedded, and will be implementing the chips into their watches — adding a payment capability you can find on a smartwatch like the Apple Watch to a range of non-smartwatches.

Samsung said today it will be trialling the CCP in Eastern Europe this April, with 15,000 users — with a view to further expanding in the region thereafter.

Of course, with any payment tech, the platform will need to get device makers on board embedding the chips and establish a payment support ecosystem to enable capabilities such as cash top-ups — hence Samsung working with POS partners for this platform approach.

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