Apple Pay debuted in South Korea nine years after its global launch, giving the country’s dominant mobile pay platform Samsung Pay some competition. Apple Pay in South Korea is launched with support for Mastercard, Visa and local debit and credit cards issued by Hyundai Card.

Apple has added the country to its list of territories where the service is available and confirms on a support page in Korea that iPhone and Apple Watch users can use the service to make in-store payments “in many places that support NFC technology” as well as for online payments from Apple devices.

Merchants in South Korea accepting in-store payments made using Apple Pay include Hyundai Department Store, Ikea, outlets and franchises owned by retail giant Lotte, as well as convenience store chains GS25, CU and 7-Eleven.

Food and beverage outlets McDonald’s, Lotteria, Shake Shack, Krispy Kreme, Paris Baguette, Blue Bottle Coffee, Baskin Robbins, Gong Cha and Ediya Coffee, as well as electronics stores LG Best Shop, Willys and Frisbee plus the Grand Hyatt Seoul and Conrad Seoul hotels, are also now accepting Apple Pay, according to the support page. To date, Hyundai Card is the only card issuer in South Korea to add support for Apple Pay.

Apple Pay vs Samsung Pay

The Korea Herald noted Apple Pay faces various obstacles in the country, as users cannot pay for public transport and an estimated 70,000 of some 2.9 million retail outlets have the NFC readers required to accept the payment method.

Another challenge is that Android-powered smartphones dominate, with less than 20 percent of the country’s mobile subscribers using iPhones, the newspaper noted.

Duncan Olby, head of Apple Pay and Wallets for international markets, reportedly told the press that users’ card numbers are not stored on the company’s servers, noting “a unique device account number is encrypted and stored in the secure element, which is a certified chip” on its devices.

Reports that Apple Pay would go live in South Korea in the following months emerged in February following a decision by the country’s Financial Services Commission to allow card issuers to add support for Apple Pay.

AppIe Pay began a limited pilot rollout in November 2022, enabling consumers in South Korea to make online payments using the service.

Apple Pay went live in Malaysia and Qatar in August 2022 and in Kuwait in October of the same year.