Seoul City Selects 'Shinhan Consortium' as Sales Agent for Seoul Sarang Gift Certificates

Shinhan Card, Shinhan Bank, T-money, and Kakao Pay Form Mammoth Financial and Big Tech Consortium
Leveraging Existing Business Apps, Evolving Beyond Gift Card Purchase and Payment Functions into a Lifestyle Platform, Full-Scale Activation of the Fintech Industry

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 24th, Seoul City announced that it has finally selected the ‘Shinhan Consortium’ as the new gift certificate sales agency to manage everything from the sale, payment, and settlement of the ‘Seoul Love Gift Certificate’ to managing 400,000 affiliated stores and 1.83 million users.

The newly selected ‘Shinhan Consortium’ includes four mammoth financial and big tech companies: Shinhan Card, Shinhan Bank, T-money, and Kakao Pay. They will carry out the project for two years starting January next year through a four-party joint execution method.

The main operator, Shinhan Card, will be responsible for ▲developing and operating the Seoul City administrative innovation platform ▲acting as the sales agency and recruiting affiliated stores. Shinhan Bank, a joint member, will handle ▲fund management of the gift certificates ▲linkage with bank transactions. Kakao Pay will support ▲building the payment environment for affiliated stores ▲policy promotion and notification services. Meanwhile, T-money will take on the role of establishing the nation’s first system that allows charging and using public transportation services within the mobile gift certificate app.

Along with selecting the new sales agency, Seoul City plans to upgrade the gift certificate app to develop it into a lifestyle platform where users can check not only gift certificate purchases and payments but also various lifestyle information all in one place. This aims to help increase sales for small business owners and thereby contribute to revitalizing the local economy.

Purchasing gift certificates, which was previously only possible via bank accounts, will now be available through credit, check, and prepaid cards. Payment methods will diversify from the current QR code scanning and barcode presentation to include ▲two-way QR payments ▲NFC payments ▲touch payments. For affiliated stores, sales reports and performance comparisons with similar businesses will be provided to support effective sales management, along with consumer-targeted marketing such as issuing discount coupons and promoting affiliated stores.

Additionally, various policy funds such as allowances supported by Seoul City and the government will be conveniently accessible through the gift certificate app, allowing users to apply for, receive, and pay with them, as well as link information for policy evaluation and proposals.

Han Young-hee, Seoul City’s Director of Labor, Fairness, and Coexistence Policy, said, “The Seoul Love Gift Certificate payment app, available from next year, will be a lifestyle economy platform where users can check everything from gift certificate purchases and payments to various information at once. We will make various efforts so that consumers can use the Seoul Love Gift Certificate more conveniently and affiliated stores can increase their sales. Through collaboration with the country’s largest banks and big tech companies, we will actively promote the fintech industry and enhance Seoul’s status as a global fintech leading city.”

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