Shinhan Card Super App 'Shinhan Play' Sees Rapid Increase of 450,000 Users in One Month (Comprehensive)

Shinhan Card Revamp, Competing with Big Tech
Monthly Active Users (MAU) Surpass 6 Million

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] Shinhan Card's newly revamped 'Shinhan Play' saw its monthly active users surge by nearly 500,000 within a month. The cumulative number of users also surpassed 6 million. Attention is focused on whether it can secure competitive parity as a platform company amid the rapid encroachment of big tech (large information technology companies) into the payment market.

According to Shinhan Card on the 9th, Shinhan Play's MAU (Monthly Active Users) in October was recorded at 6.35 million. This is an increase of 450,000 (7.6%) from 5.9 million in September within just one month. MAU is an indicator that reflects how active the platform is, not just the size of its membership. Although it is still smaller compared to the MAUs of big tech or banking applications, it is a remarkable growth trend in the card industry.

Shinhan Card declared its evolution into a lifestyle finance platform and launched Shinhan Play last month, which revamped the existing simple payment platform Shinhan PayFAN. The focus was on integration, speed, and personalization improvements. It provides integrated super app services including payment, banking, asset management, a partner company integrated membership program accumulated with a single barcode, wallet services such as ID and authentication, and customized content based on customer interests. The Shake & Slide technology, which enables payment by shaking the smartphone or using the home screen edge panel, was also applied.

Achievements in the Digital Sector... Advancing to a Platform Company with 30 Million Customers and 200 Trillion KRW Annual Transactions

Not only has Shinhan Play's MAU increased, but achievements in the digital sector continue as well. Shinhan Card's digital coverage (digital new transactions as a percentage of total new transactions) in financial products and simple payment sectors recorded 58.8% and 23.6%, respectively, in the third quarter of this year. These figures represent increases of 6.9 percentage points and 2.4 percentage points compared to the end of last year. Shinhan Card's strategy is to raise these figures to 60% and 25% by the end of the year.

In particular, cost reduction through digital means has led to improved performance. The scale of digital cost savings up to the third quarter this year reached 40.8 billion KRW, accounting for 59.5% of the increase in net profit for the period. Digital cost savings have shown a significant upward trend every year, with 12 billion KRW in 2019, 34.6 billion KRW in 2020, and 40.8 billion KRW accumulated by the third quarter this year.

Shinhan Card aims to leap beyond being the number one in the card industry to become a platform company with competitive parity against big tech. Big tech companies are gradually expanding their influence in simple payments and other areas based on their platforms. According to the Bank of Korea, in the first half of this year, the average daily payment amount via big tech simple payments was 276.2 billion KRW (49.4%), while payments by financial institutions such as banks and card companies amounted to 159.1 billion KRW (28.5%).

In response to the rapidly changing payment environment, Shinhan Card declared its second founding through the Shinhan Play Unpack Show at the end of September. The plan is to transform into a 'Life & Finance' platform company with 30 million customers and annual transactions of 200 trillion KRW. At this event, Shinhan Card CEO Lim Young-jin emphasized, "Now, through evolution into a platform company with 30 million members, we will fill customers' daily lives with enjoyable play and achieve the completion of a differentiated customer life."

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