Samsung begins testing its mobile payments platform

Samsung has begun rolling out a trial version of its mobile payments platform in South Korea, the company announced Thursday.

Samsung Pay, the company's answer to Apple Pay and Android Pay, is currently available to a select group of users with the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones.

The trial suggests Samsung is getting closer to a full rollout of its Apple Pay competitor. Although the company did not provide an official launch date, previous reports indicate the U.S launch is slated for September.

In practice, Samsung Pay works much like Apple Pay and the soon-to-be released Android Pay.

"When it is time to pay, just launch the app, hold your Samsung device near the credit card terminal and authorize it with the touch of your finger," Samsung wrote in a blog post.

IMAGE: SAMSUNG PAY

But behind the scenes, Samsung's platform takes a different approach to mobile payments than its rivals. Like Apple Pay and Android Pay, Samsung Pay uses near field communication (NFC) to enable its phone-based payments. But unlike its two competitors, the service also supports magnetic secure transmission (MST), a different standard that is similar to the magnetic strip on traditional credit cards.

Unlike NFC, which is still not widely supported at point-of-sale (POS) terminals, MST is supported at just about every terminal that accepts credit cards; this could help Samsung overcome some of the initial roadblocks that have hindered widespread NFC adoption. In fact, it could be enough to help Samsung overtake Apple and Google in the still-nascent mobile payments space.

For its part, Apple has also been ramping up its mobile payments platform. The companyexpanded Apple Pay to the UK earlier this week, the first country outside the U.S to get access to the service.

Still, the timing of Samsung's launch seems relatively fast compared to its competitors. In February, it acquired mobile payments company LoopPay, one of the first signals that Samung was serious about competing with Apple and Google.

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