Hey there! Today we‘re going to dive into an epic showdown between two pioneers in the mobile payments space – Chase Pay and Samsung Pay. As more commerce moves to our phones, the race to make purchases frictionless led financial institutions and device makers alike to launch their own "digital wallets" where we could store payment cards and tap to pay.
Chase Pay came first in 2013 with a slick app letting Chase debit/credit cardholders check out using QR codes. Then Samsung Pay burst onto the scene in 2015 with technology for both old-school magnetic card terminals and new-fangled NFC. Very different approaches!
Over years of co-existence though, only one wallet stood the test of time among consumers. By 2021 Chase threw in the towel. Meanwhile Samsung Pay keeps growing thanks to versatility few competitors can match.
Intrigued about what happened? As a long-time payments industry analyst, I‘ll guide you through everything you need to know about these products and their histories. No dusty boring text – just insightful analysis with a friendly vibe! Let‘s dive in on this epic mobile wallet matchup!
Chase Pay and Samsung Pay: The Core Differences
Before analyzing what went right (and wrong) for each mobile payment service, we need to understand how Chase Pay and Samsung Pay diverged from the beginning:
How You Pay: Chase Pay relied on QR codes that cashiers scanned to pull up your card info. Samsung Pay instead lets you tap at checkout using NFC waves or mimic swiping your physical card if the merchant has old terminals without NFC readers.
What You Can Pay On: Chase limited things to just their iOS/Android app. But Samsung Pay works across recent Samsung phones, tablets, and smartwatches.
So at the core, Samsung Pay does what Chase Pay simply couldn‘t – give users a seamlessly compatible tap-and-pay experience on diverse devices with support for way more locations. But how exactly did we end up here? Let‘s rewind and follow the key events for both over time…
Born in Different Eras: Origins of Chase Pay and Samsung Pay
While competition heated up in this decade as major players jockeyed for our loyalty (and transaction data), Chase and Samsung actually entered the mobile wallet game in very different contexts.
Chase Strikes First – Back in 2013 when Chase Pay appeared, paying with your phone felt straight out of sci-fi movies. Most shoppers were still transitioning from swiping to "dipping" EMV chip cards. Against that backdrop, Chase Pay stood out as a bold (if clunky) entry to mobile payments. Huge props for being early – though as we‘ll see, sometimes being ahead of the curve backfires…
Samsung Catches Up – Flash forward to August 2015 when Samsung announces Samsung Pay after acquiring a startup called LoopPay months earlier. With smart adoption of contactless payments underway, the timing couldn‘t have been better for Samsung to come to market with versatile tech in tow.
So in a way, Chase Pay helped kickstart the mobile wallet movement. But unfortunately Chase didn‘t stick the landing. Instead a nimble fast-follower in Samsung iterated on early learnings and ultimately won over more users. A common tale of technology disruption playing out before our eyes!
Now let‘s get into more details on each product‘s evolution and central features…
Chase Pay: Ambitious but Ahead of Its Time
As mobile technology expanded what our phones could do, legacy financial companies realized the new potential to embed services for cardholders.
For Chase, their massive scale in consumer banking and payments processing made the opportunity obvious. Hence through their subsidiary Chase Paymentech, Chase Pay was born to conquer in-store payments by smartphone!
Here was the Chase Pay blueprint when it launched in May 2013:
- Seamless integration with user‘s Chase cards stored in the app
- Checkout using dynamic QR codes shown to cashiers
- Chase Pay-enabled payment terminals rolled out to major retail chains
The technology itself worked fine in testing. And Chase made serious inroads signing up big merchants like Walmart, Best Buy and Shell to accept Chase Pay in-store. But user adoption lagged behind where Chase hoped, as consumers were slow to embrace checking out via QR codes.
By 2016 only 7.4% of smartphone users with Chase Pay had tried even one in-store purchase with it. And Chase app downloads trailed competitor apps by over 13X.
Despite respectable early moves into the space, Chase failed to make Chase Pay‘s usage frictionless and habit-forming enough at scale. So after nearly 8 years of middling success, Chase Pay shut down for good in March 2021.
Samsung Pay: Right Tech, Right Time
Unlike Chase‘s in-house build, Samsung took the acquisition route – purchasing a plucky startup called LoopPay for $250 million. This delivered Samsung two invaluable assets out of the gates:
Next-Gen Magnetic Card Replication – LoopPay‘s core breakthrough was solving how to transmit old-fashioned magstripe card data to traditional payment terminals…without requiring retailers to adopt new NFC readers. This magnetic secure transmission (MST) tech meant Samsung Pay would work virtually anywhere.
Battle-Tested Leadership – Equally key, Samsung integrated LoopPay‘s executives to lead engineering and partnerships for Samsung Pay. Rather than reinvent wheels, Samsung wisely tapped proven payment vets.
Armed with these two advantages, Samsung Pay took the market by storm when it appeared just months later. Wide device and point-of-sale compatibility made usage totally frictionless for consumers. Checkout required no new equipment or codes – just tap and you‘re done!
The results speak for themselves: 80+ million global users as of 2020, tapping into over $7.5 billion in purchase volume annually. And thanks to ongoing geographic expansion and branding integration with Samsung Wallet, Samsung Pay sees no signs of slowing down.
While far from the only mobile wallet around today, Samsung can pride itself on matching strategic savvy with strong execution. Time will tell if upcoming crypto integrations into Samsung Wallet provide next-level staying power!
By the Numbers: Adoption Over Time
Stepping back from the product breakdowns, let‘s examine hard adoption metrics for mobile payment services over the years. This quantifiable look at user growth makes the market preference abundantly clear:
| Year | % of U.S. Smartphone Owners Using Mobile Payments In-Store |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 19% |
| 2018 | 29% |
| 2021 | Over 40% |
Beyond this steady climb in general mobile pay app usage, Samsung Pay‘s growth trajectory has stayed strong since launch:
- 2016: Samsung Pay available on 100M+ devices, sees almost $500M in transaction volume in South Korea
- 2017: Samsung Pay expands to Canada, Sweden, Thailand reaching 20 markets globally
- 2020: Over 80M global users reported, tapping into $7.5B+ transaction volume per year
Contrast this with Chase Pay, which never managed to escape niche status:
- 2016: Just 7.4% of Chase Pay users had tried an in-store purchase; significantly trailed Apple/Android Pay app downloads
- 2021: Roughly 5 years post-launch, Chase sunsets Chase Pay for good
Given the side-by-side timelines, Samsung Pay clearly resonated far better with mainstream consumers. While Chase tried paying lip service to mobile early on, execution mistakes proved too much to overcome.
Why Samsung Won the Wallet Wars
By this point, the post-mortem seems pretty clear-cut, no? Samsung Pay delivered mobile tap-and-pay nirvana that worked splendidly across devices and locations. Chase Pay, on the other hand, struggled with poor user experience and changing consumer expectations.
But let‘s recap concisely why Samsung Pay emerged the undisputed mobile payments winner:
Magnetic Stripe Replication Was the Key – Mimicking card swipes opened up acceptance and usage at some 90% of US payment terminals, compared to just 30% or so for NFC alone. This let Samsung Pay gain ubiquity faster.
Multi-Device Support Drove Adoption – Unlike single-app solutions, Samsung Pay works across high-end Samsung phones, watches, tablets and even TVs. Greater flexibility to leave wallets at home.
Strong Ongoing Innovation – Samsung keeps evolving wallet capabilities to personalize offers, integrate crypto/blockchain platforms, and handle more card issuers through global expansion.
Of course hindsight is 20/20. And Chase Pay deserves immense credit for its daring early experiment despite lacking the sophisticated capabilities we see today. QR code payments may even regain popularity down the road!
However, in reviewing the tale of these two mobile wallets, Samsung clearly made the right bets – acquiring and integrating the perfect payments technology for their broader ecosystem. The results put Samsung Pay miles ahead as consumers‘ preferred payment app. Well played, Samsung!
The Future of Mobile Payments
Samsung Pay conquered early hurdles to mobile wallet ubiquity thanks to magnetic stripe compatibility. But even more disruption still lies ahead! I‘m eager to see innovations like:
- Crypto/DeFi payments and banking integrations
- Biometric security enhancing trust and convenience
- Rising tap-and-go adoption for transit, events, identity verification use cases
- Banks and fintechs trying to maintain card relationships as virtual wallets gain primacy
Across the board, the payments domain will get increasingly embedded into our phones and associated services. Just look at Apple moving into Buy Now, Pay Later financing or how Chinese super-apps combine messaging, shopping and finances in one portal. Exciting times ahead!
For now, services like Samsung Pay have the inside track thanks to strong execution on early promises of mobile payments. But as more players vie for market share, expect plenty more consumer-friendly wallet improvements trying to simplify our financial lives!
The Knockout Blow: Samsung Pay Wins!
We‘ve covered a lot of ground analyzing Samsung Pay‘s winning strategy compared to Chase Pay‘s missteps. When we weigh all the evidence side-by-side – from product roadmaps to technical underpinnings and real-world usage data – Samsung Pay clearly goes down as the superior mobile wallet play.
While Chase Pay retired to the payment graveyard after failing to achieve product-market fit, Samsung Pay continues going strong by sticking to what consumers want most – dead simple smartphone payments that just work. Almost universally!
Of course the competitive landscape keeps evolving. As banks, fintech disruptors, blockchain projects and big tech wade deeper into embedded finance, they‘ll spur fresh innovation pushing mobile wallets forward along multiple dimensions. Security, rewards, accessibility, personalization – no element is safe from disruption!
But for now in early 2023, Samsung remains king of the mobile payments arena. Thanks to smart strategy, strong vision and relentless user-focused execution, Samsung Pay stands apart as the definitive modern digital wallet experience mobile users have embraced most enthusiastically. Game, set, match to Samsung on this one!
So in the great Chase Pay vs. Samsung Pay showdown, a clear winner emerges in Samsung. But mobile tap-and-pay still has enormous headroom ahead to penetrate society more completely. And you can bet even more advanced capabilities will drop over time as phones become the hub of our financial lives. Exciting road ahead!
Did you dig this deep dive? Hit me up with feedback on other financial tech topics you’d love to see covered. And don’t forget to upgrade your wallet to Samsung Pay! Tap or swipe…the choice is yours. Just sit back and enjoy those checkout lines disappearing. 😎
