April 20, 2024

• 

[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s top mobile messenger operator Kakao  said on Oct. 18 its mobile payment platform Kakao Pay currently has more than 13 million users, two years after its launch.

A total of 13 million active users have paid for items through the one-click payment system since it was officially launched in September 2014, the company said. South Korea has a total population of 51 million.

The platform is similar to online payment service PayPal of the United States, as users pre-register their credit or debit cards and make transactions simply by logging into their messenger IDs. 

Kakao, which has been rolling out various services on the back of 38 million local users of the KakaoTalk mobile messenger, said the money transfer accumulated by Kakao Pay users reached 1 trillion won (US$883 million).

“More than 1 million credit cards affiliated with Kakao Pay were issued,” said Ryu Young-joon, a Kakao official. 

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)