Samsung and Naver have formed a strategic partnership designed to maintain the two companies’ mobile payments market leadership in South Korea ahead of Apple’s expected launch of Apple Pay in the country in the coming months.

“The partnership between the two top mobile payment players in each domain ― Naver Pay being the number one online payment service company and Samsung Pay being the top offline mobile payment service with 23.5% market share in the country ― is expected to create synergy, resulting in increased convenience for service users,” The Korea Times reports.

“With the two mobile payment providers’ cooperation in payment and digital wallet services, a whopping 31.5 million Naver Pay users can make payments with their cell phone at any store that accepts credit card payments, using magnetic secure transmission (MST), a key technology behind Samsung Pay’s offline mobile payment. Vice versa, Samsung Pay users can now make transactions with it in over 550,000 Naver Pay-affiliated online stores.”

“It is not only Samsung Pay that has been preparing for shocks from Apple Pay’s launch in the country,” the publication adds.

“Several major card companies, including Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Lotte, Hana, Woori and NH NongHyup, have agreed to form a common ‘open pay’ service, through which users of one of the card companies can use other companies’ mobile payment platforms. It is a move to broaden their cards’ relevance and versatility, in preparation for Apple Pay’s entry into local markets.”

At launch, Apple Pay is expected to be exclusively available to customers of Hyundai Card.

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