LG Pay to launch this year in the U.S.’s crowded mobile wallet market

The long-rumored U.S. launch of LG Pay looks finally set to happen.

South Korea-based LG Electronics Inc. plans to debut its mobile payments platform in the U.S. during the first half of this year, coinciding with the launch of two new handsets — the G7 and V40.

LG Pay offers a near identical version of Samsung’s proprietary Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology, which simulates a magnetic stripe signal as an alternative to wireless NFC payments. LG’s version is called Wireless Magnetic Communication (WMC).

However, LG Pay is entering a fiercely competitive market that is already replete with “Pays” from handset manufacturers, banks and retailers. Whether it has any real scope for market penetration remains to be seen, particularly with Google making a renewed push into the digital wallet space with its rebranding of Google Wallet and Android Pay under the consolidated Google Pay name. LG Pay may well be relegated to the background of Android devices given Google’s name recognition and existing base of users of its platform.

Bloomberg News