KB Securities and Zoom Internet to Launch Next-Generation MTS as Early as May

Toss Securities to Compete with Kakao Pay Securities
"Targeting Not Only 'Joorini' but Also Existing Investors"

On September 22 last year, Park Jeong-rim, CEO of KB Securities (left), and Kim Woo-seung, CEO of Zoom Internet, who attended the joint venture company contract signing ceremony held in Yeouido, Seoul, are taking a commemorative photo. The joint venture 'Project Vanilla,' established with an initial capital of 5 billion KRW, is owned 51% by Zoom Internet and 49% by KB Securities respectively.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] KB Securities plans to launch a new mobile trading system (MTS) developed in collaboration with Zoom Internet as early as next month. This move is seen as a strategic effort to quickly establish a foothold ahead of Kakao Pay Securities’ MTS, scheduled for release in the second half of the year, following the great popularity of Toss Securities’ MTS.

According to industry sources on the 26th, 'Project Vanilla,' a tech-finance (technology + finance) joint venture created by KB Securities and Zoom Internet, is expected to release the new MTS as early as next month. The first demonstration has already been completed, and the second round of testing is set to begin this week. Although the initial plan was to launch in the first half of the year, the unexpectedly strong success of Toss Securities’ MTS appears to have accelerated the release schedule. Since Kakao Pay Securities is expected to attract a large number of first-time stock investors in their 20s and 30s, known as 'Joorini (stock + child),' with its MTS launch in the second half of the year, Project Vanilla is speeding up to secure market dominance.

Earlier, Toss Securities surpassed 2 million new securities accounts on the 16th. This came just two days after reaching 1 million new accounts within a month of launching its MTS on the 15th of last month. Approximately 70% (1.4 million) of the new account holders were in their 20s and 30s.

Project Vanilla aims to cater to both 'Joorini' and existing investors. While Toss Securities’ MTS has been highly praised for simplifying complex functions and terminology, it removed reference tools such as candlestick charts and moving averages, which caused some inconvenience for seasoned investors. Project Vanilla plans to address this gap.

Unlike traditional securities firms’ MTS, Project Vanilla’s system will, like Toss Securities, make it easy for 'Joorini' to start investing by presenting and organizing various information in a user-friendly way. It plans to provide intuitive content formats that explain which industries and stocks to invest in. Additionally, it will not omit the features that existing stock investors expect from conventional securities firms’ MTS. While Toss Securities’ MTS primarily targets 'Joorini' only, Project Vanilla’s MTS strategy is to target 'Joorini as well.'

Project Vanilla CEO Daemo Koo explained, "Existing securities firms’ MTS have numerous functions and information but are arranged too complexly. Just a little reorganization can greatly reduce inconvenience. Unlike other simplified MTS that remove functions entirely, ours starts off plain and simple but allows users to access optimized features as they use it more, like preparing weapons that can be used as you level up in a game."

Meanwhile, Project Vanilla’s MTS is not expected to replace KB Securities’ existing MTS for the time being. Since KB Securities’ current MTS, 'M-able,' has already established its own customer base, simply replacing it with a new MTS would be inefficient. CEO Koo emphasized, "We will focus on acquiring customers by providing simplicity and easy-to-understand investment information for Joorini, while also offering various useful investment information intuitively to long-time investors, unlike the complex existing MTS."

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