A customer pays with Apple Pay at a convenience store in Seoul on March 21, 2023. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 29 (Korea Bizwire) — Apple Inc.’s mobile payment service, Apple Pay, has processed 25.8 million transactions within just 100 days of its launch in South Korea.
According to Hyundai Card Co., payments with Apple Pay have been made at 108,000 stores across the country since the service was introduced in March.
Apple, which launched the wireless payment service in the United States in 2014, joined hands with Hyundai Card, a local credit card firm under the wing of Hyundai Motor Group, to launch the long-awaited service in South Korea under a one-year exclusive contract.
A majority of the stores accepting Apple Pay (77 percent or 83,000) were small businesses earning less than 3 billion won (US$2.28 million) annually.
Apple Pay was utilized at 24,000 stores that were not officially listed as Apple Pay partners.
“An increasing number of small businesses are voluntarily adopting Apple Pay,” stated Hyundai Card.
The data also revealed that 93 percent of Apple Pay payments were made offline.
The majority of offline payments were made at GS25, CU, Costco, Starbucks, and Paris Baguette stores.
Online payments were primarily made at the Baemin, Musinsa, Burger King, Lotte ON, and Korean Air websites.
According to Hyundai Card, the oldest Apple Pay user was 90 years old.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
