In its first month in South Korea, Samsung’s rival to Apple and Android Pay has rung up $30 million in transactions.
The figures are the first to be released by a major company in the growing field of mobile payment services, which are pushing to become an alternative to shoppers paying with cash or swiping their credit cards at stores. Samsung’s data shows modest progress with its service, but it also highlights how far there is to go in its home country.
Samsung Pay premiered in Korea in August, and will debut in the U.S. on September 28.
To use Samsung Pay, people open an account by entering their credit card information. After that, they can pay for what they purchase by merely tapping their phones on a point of sale device that uses wireless technology.
Apple Pay and Android Pay also use similar NFC technology to accept payments. Their partners include Walgreens, Macy’s, and Whole Foods.
Apple introduced Apple Pay last year while Android Pay started slowly rolling out on September 10.
What makes Samsung Pay different from Apple Pay (AAPL) and Google’s Android Pay (GOOG) is that merchants can accept payments using their existing credit card terminals. They do not need the NFC technology, required by Apple and Google, to operate.
At a San Francisco event in partnership with Visa, Dr. Injong Rhee, the head of Samsung Pay, said his company has already handled 1.5 million transactions. He added that tens of thousands of South Koreans are signing up daily for it without saying how many total users there are.
It’s impossible to compare Samsung’s data to its rivals. So far, Apple has not disclosed any data about transactions or users. One of the only nuggets Apple has revealed is that it expected 1.5 million stores to accept Apple Pay in the U.S. by the end of 2015.
Auriemma Consulting Group, however, has estimated that Apple Pay adoption is relatively high. In a survey, it found that 42% of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners have used Apple Pay.
Apple Pay certainly has the advantage of a head start on both Samsung Pay and Android Pay
For more on Apple Pay, watch this video:
