KakaoPay, South Korea’s popular payment platform, has witnessed an astonishing 14-fold increase in transactions made by foreign tourists within a year. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Korea Bizwire) – KakaoPay, South Korea’s popular payment platform, has witnessed an astonishing 14-fold increase in transactions made by foreign tourists within a year. This surge is attributed to the rise in international visitors in the post-COVID era and the expansion of KakaoPay-affiliated merchants linked to foreign fintech (payment) services.
According to the ICT industry reports on January 10, the amount paid by foreign tourists at domestic offline merchants through KakaoPay last month was about 14 times higher than in January of last year. Both the number of transactions and users have increased significantly.
The regional breakdown of these transactions reveals a higher concentration in areas popular with tourists. This trend is particularly evident in specific payment locations; for instance, retail stores, known for being early adopters of foreign tourist payment infrastructure, experienced a significantly higher volume of transactions.
Since 2019, KakaoPay has been expanding its ‘Global Cross-Border Payment System’. This includes services allowing domestic users to make payments abroad without currency exchange and enabling foreign tourists to pay at KakaoPay merchants in Korea using their home country’s fintech services. KakaoPay is unique among domestic mobile payment services in offering inbound foreign payment services.
With approximately 80% of foreign tourists in Korea coming from major Asian countries where QR payments are more prevalent than credit cards, KakaoPay introduced this service considering these trends.
Following the pandemic-induced decline in tourism, KakaoPay is preparing for increased foreign tourist spending by expanding its merchant network. The company is particularly focused on disseminating QR payment kits to small business owners to capitalize on the tourist boom.
KakaoPay is leading the expansion of the QR infrastructure domestically while also broadening its integration with foreign mobile payment services. The company’s goal is to handle 60% of the payment activities of the 13 million foreign tourists visiting South Korea every year.
A KakaoPay representative stated, “As the sole domestic provider offering payment networks to overseas mobile payment operators, we are committed to fulfilling our responsibility. We aim to play our role as a national representative of global payment systems to aid in the real revenue growth of our merchants.”
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
