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NFC Times Exclusive – Samsung has been considering introducing NFC transit ticketing in every market where it has launched Samsung Pay, including the U.S., an

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – As global mobile wallet providers Google, Samsung and Microsoft race to deliver multichannel payments to stay on par with Apple, all three have chosen to add online payments to their mobile wallets by integrating with the digital platforms of one or both of the two largest U.S. payments networks, Visa and Mastercard.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight –  Las Vegas, USA: Samsung today announced its long-anticipated support for online and in-app payments for Samsung Pay in the U.S., while also releasing plans to launch its payments service in three more countries, though one, Russia, had already been announced.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – As “Pays” mobile payments services, such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, continue to expand internationally, domestic debit networks and their payments technology providers want to be ready to enable banks to plug into the new wallets, if and when they launch.

UPDATED: NFC Times Excusive Insight – Samsung Pay is expected to launch in Russia tomorrow, beating Apple to the market, which disclosed earlier this month that it plans a Russian launch of Apple Pay before the end of the year.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Twelve months after launch, Samsung Pay is available in seven countries and eight total markets with users having made a combined 100 million or so transactions over the past year, but the tech giant is not disclosing its total number of users.

NFC Times Exclusive – SHANGHAI, China: While Apple has signed up more banks and is believed to have more cards registered in China for its Apple Pay service–around 10 million, according to a source–Samsung is seeking to outflank its rival with more acceptance points and more applications for Samsung Pay, NFC Times has learned.

NFC Times Exclusive Insight - Samsung launched Samsung Pay in its fifth country, Australia, on Wednesday, but like Apple, Samsung has had to make do without the country's largest card issuers to begin with.

UPDATED: NFC Times Exclusive Insight – Following the launch of Samsung Pay in South Korea, the U.S., and China, Samsung’s launches of its mobile payments service in two new markets, Spain and Australia, both contactless and EMV payments hot spots, will not support the device maker's proprietary Magnetic Secure Transmission technology, which is designed to make nearly all mag-stripe POS terminals potential acceptance points, NFC Times has learned. But in Singapore, Samsung Pay is expected to support MST technology.

NFC Times Exclusive – Certain point-of-sale terminals from a variety of device manufacturers aren’t yet compatible with Samsung’s proprietary Magnetic Secure Transmission technology, with Samsung Electronics’ promise of universal acceptance of Samsung Pay at card-accepting merchant locations still apparently a far-off target.