Mobile payments services aren’t new, in fact they’ve been around for several years, but the market wasn’t even remotely popular until Apple decided to take a swing at it. Now that Apple Pay has launched, everyone wants a piece of the pie. Samsung is one such company and has acquired a mobile payments startup by the name LoopPay to help it combat Apple Pay.
Samsung is gearing up to take on the likes of Apple Pay and Google Wallet after announcing on Wednesday its intention to buy mobile payments startup LoopPay. It’s not particularly hard to see why Samsung was attracted to the Boston-based outfit. For starters, LoopPay’s technology, which sits inside a smartphone case or fob, works by sending a magnetic signal to a traditional magnetic-stripe card reader. This means that at the current time it can work in a lot more locations than Apple Pay, which requires retailers to install an NFC-enabled checkout system. In fact, the startup says its product, which works with thousands of different credit and debit cards, is already compatible with 90 percent of existing readers in the U.S., adding that it’s accepted by around 10 million merchants across the country.
