Kakao Pay is a mobile payment service run by Kakao, South Korea’s IT giant that made Korea’s dominant messenger app, KakaoTalk. Kakao Pay announced on June 25 that the company saw the monthly transaction amount of its remittance service exceeding 80 billion won (USD 7.1 million) in July, a 60% increase over the previous month.
Since it spun off from Kakao as an independent entity in April, its remittance transactions have been increasing by more than 10 billion won every month.
Kakao Pay aspires to bring convenience to people’s daily financial activities by creating a seamless mobile environment and by simplifying procedures. Since its launch last year, Kakao Pay has added a number of functions to its platform in order to meet its customer’s needs. For instance, one of its functions allows users to integrate their existing bank accounts to Kakao Pay.
Kakao Pay is also integrated with the interface of KakaoTalk, the largest messenger app in Korea and Kakao Pay’s sister company. For example, when users click on a chat message in Kakao Talk that contains account information, the app automatically transfers to Kakao Pay and users can, then, easily complete transactions as necessary. And, if users make remittance payments to contacts on their KakaoTalk accounts, they can instantly send an envelope-shaped message with payment on KakaoTalk, itself.
The number of affiliates have steadily increased from five to 16 domestic financial institutions, including KB Kookmin Bank, NH Nonghyup Bank, Shinhan Bank, and Jeju Bank. All can, now, be used without a fee.
(Top photo from 58pic.com)
This article, entitled “South Korea’s mobile-payment app, Kakao Pay saw its transactions exceeding USD 7.1M in July”, was written in Korean by Platum, edited by AllTechAsia.