Samsung Ready to Launch Samsung Poin, A Payment Tool For Local Content

As I promised on my article about Samsung Galaxy and local application, I immediately contacted Pambudi Baskara Sudirman, Apps Manager of Samsung Indonesia, to find out more about Samsung Indonesia’s plan to build a store application for local content. Here’s the summary of my interview with him via email

Pambudi confirmed the news that Samsung is preparing a store app that contains local content. This store app will be grouped by type. In addition to 3 applications that have been mentioned in previous news, namely eReading, Laguku and Lubitu, there are other applications. One that is confirmed is eComic. All content purchases with said application will use Samsung Poin (SPoin) as a means of payment.

The store app will contain many contents such as books, music, movies, games and others made by local parties. Regarding this content, Samsung is already working with several parties i.e. for music, in addition to working with major music label; Samsung is also working in indie label to add the song content. For books/magazines content, Samsung has established cooperation with several major publishers such Kompas Gramedia, MRA, Tempo and others. Interestingly, the content available in this store will not only be enjoyed by the latest version of Samsung Galaxy device but also older models that have been out a year or two earlier. Therefore, device (Samsung Galaxy) which is supported by this content store will be 2 or 3 times more than if it only supporting device (Samsung Galaxy) of the latest release.

Pambudi is aware that the important component in the content store is not only the content. The ecosystem that supports the content store must also be considered. Convenience in purchasing content to its utilization should also be paid into attention so user can get a fun experience in utilizing this content store. In addition, this content store should also support content developers in developing quality content. These two factors must be considered for the continuous success of the content store built by Samsung.

Regarding the purchase of SPoin used as a means of payment of said content, Pambudi mentioned that Samsung will cooperate with the bank in order to make it easy for user to buy SPoin. But Pambudi still cannot name the bank cooperating with Samsung.

As written by Kompas Tekno, every item sold in this content store will be rewarded in SPoin. One SPoin is equal to Rp1.000. Of the price of each item, copyright holder will get 70%, whereas 30% goes to Samsung.

User who wants to purchase a content must own an account that is integrated with their Samsung Galaxy device. Registration for the account is done on SPoin.me. The site is still under construction and scheduled to be launched on May.