Apple Pay is finally set to land in Korea on Tuesday. Despite the intense anticipation surrounding its launch, the service is expected to face challenges for some time due to a lack of necessary infrastructure and service providers.
In early February, Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple Pay will be made available in South Korea starting with Large Stores like KFC, Costco, Lotte Himart, Ediya, Mega Coffee and more." A Yonap report on that same day confirmed that South Korea s financial regulator stated that local credit card firms could now introduce Apple Pay. Today, a new South Korean Business report claims that Apple Pay could launch as early as .
With Apple Pay s imminent launch in Korea, Naver Pay and Samsung Pay formed a strategic partnership earlier this week to consolidate their current dominance over the mobile payment market in the country, a move seen as an alliance to keep Apple Pay s potential growth in local markets in check. It is the first time for Samsung Pay to join hands with financial companies, other than Samsung Card.