Kim Dae-hong, CEO of Kakao Pay Securities: "Even Beginners Can Invest... We Will Offer Easy Services"

Declaration of Investment and Asset Management Popularization
KakaoPay Securities Accounts
Surpass 1.4 Million Opened
Coin and Al Collection Service
The Strongest Competitive Edge

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] "Finance has been boring and less accessible until now. We will launch an enjoyable service that even people who do not understand finance (Geumal-mot) can use for investment and asset management."

Kim Daehong, CEO of Kakao Pay Securities, said this at a press conference held for the first time since the launch of Kakao Pay Securities on the 1st. He expressed his ambition to lower the entry barriers to securities and spread an investment culture in daily life.

The core vision of Kakao Pay Securities is the popularization of investment and asset management. The company is determined to enable users who have little experience with financial services or have small asset sizes and thus have not paid attention to finance to invest through a platform with good accessibility in daily life.

CEO Kim said, "We have maintained the Kakao Pay service but have long pondered a way to solve remittance, payment, investment, and asset management all at once," adding, "It is the dream of Kakao Pay Securities crew (employees) to create an investment culture in daily life that investors can easily access."

Kakao Pay Securities quickly increased the number of account openings by introducing a new idea of converting Kakao Pay Money, Kakao Pay's prepaid electronic payment method, into securities accounts. The number of Kakao Pay Securities account holders has exceeded 1.4 million. Although the stock investment craze of individual investors, called 'Donghak Ants,' influenced by the global stock index plunge due to the COVID-19 pandemic, contributed, considering that existing brokerage firms with strong brokerage services had an average of about 100,000 new accounts per month, this is a very high figure.

CEO Kim emphasized that investment in daily life should be 'easy' and 'small amount.' The Coin Saving and Al Saving services reveal the direction of daily life investment that the company pursues. CEO Kim described these services as the company's strongest competitive advantage.

Coin Saving refers to automatically investing the leftover coins after payment, and Al Saving means automatically investing the rewards received from payments made via Kakao Pay into funds. Since the launch of the Coin Saving service on April 27 and the Al Saving service on the 1st of last month, more than 320,000 applications have been recorded. Automatic investment applications, which allow investment on designated dates, have reached 100,000.

CEO Kim plans to ultimately provide advisory asset allocation services combining big data, robo-advisors, and artificial intelligence (AI). Next year, they plan to expand coverage beyond funds by offering various service investments. He said, "Currently, we are building trust with customers through upgrading the lifestyle finance platform," adding, "In the second half of the year, we will introduce two bond-type funds to diversify investors' choices."

Kakao Pay Securities first appeared in the market on February 6 this year after signing an acquisition contract with Baro Investment Securities in September 2018 and acquiring a 60% stake. The industry expects Kakao Pay Securities, based on Kakao DNA rooted in IT services, to present a new paradigm where technology leads finance in the existing securities industry.

Since CEO Kim has extensive experience in the online securities sector, he is expected to continue introducing innovative services to the market. He said, "Kakao Pay Securities always thinks differently in every aspect to break away from existing securities services," adding, "We will present ourselves as a new platform financial company that does not exist in Korea."

CEO Kim started his career at Dongwon Securities e-biz team. In 1999, when e-Trade was booming in the United States, he joined the preparatory committee for establishing e*Mirae Asset Securities with the dream of founding the first online securities company in Korea. In the late 2010s, convinced that fintech companies with platforms would lead the financial market, he joined Kakao Pay Securities TF team as vice president and currently serves as the head of retail and general management divisions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.