Seoul, Dec 18 (IANS): South Korea's top tech firm Samsung Electronics Co. on Friday joined China's credit card operator UnionPay Co. to promote mobile payment system in the Chinese market.

Under the deal, the two firms will aim to release Samsung Pay in the first half of 2016, Yonhap news agency reported.

Samsung Pay supports magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology that works on traditional credit card machines.

Like rivals Apple Pay and Android Pay, it also supports near field communication (NFC) technology that requires a separate transaction device.

The company plans to commence the service as soon as the Chinese government finishes its certification processes.

In July, Samsung Pay also clinched a deal with MasterCard Inc. to pave the way for the platform to be used in all European countries.

Samsung Electronics currently plans to secure 170 million users of Samsung Pay by 2020.

In line with the efforts, Samsung released the new Galaxy A budget smartphones this month that supported Samsung Pay. Previously, the services were available for only high-end models.