Apple Pay announced for South Korea with Hyundai Card

(Image credit: Apple)

Apple Pay is set to debut in South Korea this year as part of a mobile payment shake-up in the country as Apple looks to make a further impression on the Asian market.

Hyundai Card, announced this week in a statement that Apple Pay will be introduced to South Korea in the coming months in an attempt to challenge Samsung’s current dominance in its home country.

The statement reads, "We look forward to collaborating with Apple to introduce Apple Pay to South Korea, (...) We will share more details in the coming months."

Nikkei Asia, reached out to Apple for comment and was offered a similar statement, "We look forward to bringing Apple Pay to [South] Korea,"

Earlier this week, the South Korean Financial Services Commission confirmed that credit card companies are now allowed to launch Apple Pay in the country as long as there are no extra charges to consumers or merchant fees.

Apple's focus on Apple Pay

Currently, Samsung Pay has an 80% market share in South Korea according to Nikkei Asia and foreign firms have struggled to gain access to the large market due to their commanding presence. The South Korean firm revealed its latest S23 smartphone lineup during Samsung Unpacked last week which they hope will contend with the best iPhone on the market, the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max.

Apple Pay is currently available in nine other Asia-Pacific countries, Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan.

Apple is working hard to expand Apple Pay’s availability across the world and is also putting a focus on expanding its options in the United States as well. Last June, the company announced Apple Pay Later, a buy now, pay later option for U.S. customers to split purchases into four equal payments over six weeks with no interest or fees.

Last week Apple's CEO, Tim Cook told CNBC that the Apple Pay Later service would be “launching soon.” With the news of the expansion to new markets alongside new Apple Pay features domestically it looks like Apple is intent on making Apple Pay as popular as ever.

John-Anthony Disotto is the How To Editor of iMore, ensuring you can get the most from your Apple products and helping fix things when your technology isn’t behaving itself. Living in Scotland, where he worked for Apple as a technician focused on iOS and iPhone repairs at the Genius Bar, John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade and prides himself in his ability to complete his Apple Watch activity rings. John-Anthony has previously worked in editorial for collectable TCG websites and graduated from The University of Strathclyde where he won the Scottish Student Journalism Award for Website of the Year as Editor-in-Chief of his university paper. He is also an avid film geek, having previously written film reviews and received the Edinburgh International Film Festival Student Critics award in 2019. John-Anthony also loves to tinker with other non-Apple technology and enjoys playing around with game emulation and Linux on his Steam Deck.

In his spare time, John-Anthony can be found watching any sport under the sun from football to darts, taking the term “Lego house” far too literally as he runs out of space to display any more plastic bricks, or chilling on the couch with his French Bulldog, Kermit.