Hyundai Card Opens Era of Ten Million Members

Growth of PLCC and Data Science-Based Personalized Benefits as Driving Forces

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] Hyundai Card's membership has surpassed 10 million.

Hyundai Card announced on the 28th that its direct members reached 10.07 million (as of the end of November 2021), exceeding 10 million for the first time since its establishment. Direct members refer to customers who have directly issued Hyundai Card, excluding family members.

Hyundai Card's membership has grown steadily over the past four years, increasing the leading digit each year. The number of members was 7.83 million in 2018, rose to 8.78 million in 2019, reached 9.39 million last year, and finally surpassed 10 million this year. This represents an increase of nearly 30% in four years. Compared to just under 1 million members right after acquiring Diners Card in 2001, the number has increased more than tenfold.

Hyundai Card cited the overwhelming growth of Private Label Credit Cards (PLCC) as the main reason for the increase in membership. The number of PLCC members grew from 830,000 in 2018 to 3.2 million in four years, a growth of over 280%. The proportion of PLCC members among Hyundai Card members also expanded significantly from 11% four years ago to 32%.

Since introducing PLCC in Korea for the first time in 2015 together with E-Mart, Hyundai Card has led the PLCC market by partnering with top companies. The industries have gradually diversified, expanding from retail, food and beverage, and airlines such as E-Mart, SSG, Costco, eBay, Starbucks, Baedal Minjok, and Korean Air to mobility, fashion, and portals favored by the MZ generation this year, including Socar, Musinsa, and Naver. Hyundai Card analyzes the preferences and lifestyles of loyal customers for each PLCC brand and designs products centered on benefits that appeal to them, which is considered the cause of the increase in PLCC membership. Additionally, big data-based activities provided to PLCC partners, such as data reporting services and hyper-personalized marketing support, have also had an impact.

Furthermore, Hyundai Card explained that its data science capabilities, which utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to predict optimized marketing for customers, along with the data alliance "Domain Galaxy" that enables immediate collaboration for joint and cross-marketing among PLCC partners, have greatly contributed to active cooperation among partners as well as increasing Hyundai Card members' preferences.

Strengthening PLCC and enhancing the overall competitiveness of products also helped surpass 10 million members. Earlier this year, Hyundai Card launched the "Hyundai Card MX Boost," which significantly expanded the benefits of its flagship products "Hyundai Card M" and "Hyundai Card X." It also introduced "Hyundai Card Z," which provides optimized benefits in areas of daily repetitive spending by analyzing customers' consumption patterns. The "Multi-Design" system, which consolidates Hyundai Card's branding and design capabilities, has also received great response with various plates reflecting the characteristics and benefits of each card.

Digital services that maximize customer convenience have also greatly contributed to increasing member satisfaction. Representative examples include "Lock & Limit," which allows users to freely set usage locations and amounts in the Hyundai Card app to manage their spending, "Virtual Card Number," which generates a virtual card number for safer card use, and "Card Number Retention Reissuance," the industry's first service that allows credit cards to be reissued without changing the card number. Proving this, the Hyundai Card app's monthly active users (MAU) reach 5.2 million, showing high usability. Additionally, Hyundai Card customers' average monthly spending this year recorded 970,000 KRW, the highest level in the industry, and the churn rate is also the lowest among major domestic card companies.

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