Major financial groups in South Korea are fiercely competing to enhance their services through the development of sophisticated mobile applications. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 10 (Korea Bizwire) – As the new year unfolds, major financial groups in South Korea are fiercely competing to enhance their services through the development of sophisticated mobile applications, focusing on creating ‘super apps’ that offer core services of both banking and non-banking affiliates in a single application, each employing slightly different strategies to attract customers.
The common themes in this app development race include hyper-personalization, breaking down service barriers, offering specialized products, and improving response speeds.
Hyper-personalization aims to provide tailored services to individual users. A prime example is displaying all of a customer’s financial products and assets, including those from other banks, on the app’s home screen, based on information from MyData. This approach seems to target marketing activities tailored to customers’ lifestyles.
Moreover, some financial groups are experimenting with embedding generative AI technology in mobile apps to recommend the most suitable products and provide personalized consulting services.
Major financial groups are also working on integrating core services of various affiliates, including non-financial services, within the app, thus breaking down internal barriers. This includes enabling access to services of affiliates like banks, securities, cards, insurance, capital, and savings banks with a single app login.
Additionally, there’s an industry-wide interest in incorporating differentiated specialized products and services, such as healthcare, into the app. For instance, customers can complete a bank transfer and then use the same app to search for used cars or participate in a joint purchase of agricultural products.
Some financial groups are focusing on improving the app’s response time, like screen transitions, by minimizing unnecessary data movement. This effort aims at enhancing user convenience.
The strategy of launching separate apps versus enhancing existing ones varies among groups. Shinhan Financial Group, for instance, launched ‘Shinhan Super SOL’ last month, separate from its existing ‘Shinhan SOL’, attracting 2.07 million users in just over two weeks. This platform is characterized by its integration of key features from five affiliate apps, including banking, cards, securities, insurance, and savings banks, in a simplified manner.
Shinhan Financial is vigorously marketing this app, including using the idol group ‘NewJeans’ as advertising models and offering up to 50,000 won in points to customers who install the app.
Competitors are also revealing their super app roadmaps. However, rather than launching separate apps, some, like KB Financial Group, are expanding the roles and features of existing apps. KB Financial Group’s ‘KB Star Banking’ connects over 70 core services of six affiliates and is being developed into a universal platform. The group plans to build a financial and lifestyle platform ecosystem by forming strategic alliances with external non-financial platforms preferred by customers.
Hana Financial Group is promoting ‘Hana One Q’ as its super app, connecting major services of its key affiliates. Since August 2000, the group has been a pioneer in the industry, allowing customers to access all affiliate services with a single login.
Woori Financial Group plans to launch a completely revamped version of its current bank app ‘Woori WON Banking’ by the end of November, focusing on seamlessly integrating major services of its affiliates.
Similarly, NH Nonghyup Financial Group will start selling products of all its affiliates through ‘NH All One Bank’ from June and expand its functionalities to enable all services without visiting a branch from January next year.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
