With the official launch of Samsung Pay Hong Kong, major banks are rolling out incentives to encourage customers to pay for purchases using credit cards via Samsung smartphones.

Ranging from discounted food, drink and toiletries to free mobile phones, the incentives are seen as necessary given the South Korean company is a relative late comer to Hong Kong’s competitive mobile payments market, reports the South China Morning Post.

Apple Pay, for instance, launched its mobile payments service last July while Google launched Android Pay in October. Alibaba Group Holdings’ financial arm Ant Financial Services Group and Tencent Holdings have also launched Alipay and WeChat Wallet respectively in Hong Kong.

Mobile payment services allow customers to store their credit-card information on their smartphones and make payments at stores using their device. The services link user bank or credit cards to an app, with their phone generating a QR code to be scanned by cashiers.

BOC Credit Card, a unit of Bank of China Hong Kong, says customers who use Samsung Pay with Mastercard or Visa cards will be eligible for discounts at retailers 7-Eleven and Mannings.

Citi is offering free Samsung Galaxy S8s and cash rebates to selected credit-card customers who use Samsung Pay, while DBS will offer cash rebates.

American Express, Dah Sing Bank and Standard Chartered are also enabling customers to register for and link their cards to Samsung Pay.

To ensure client security. Samsung Pay is supported by Visa technology, which replaces cardholder information with a unique digital identifier without exposing sensitive account information.