Kakao Pay Pushes Overseas Expansion: "Payments OK in Thailand Too"

Payment Available at Central Retail Group Department Stores and Pharmacies
Car Sharing Service Grab to Be Available in Q3

Kakao Pay payment is expanding to Thailand. Travelers can now use Kakao Pay at various local payment points frequently used by tourists, such as department stores and pharmacies. Furthermore, by the third quarter, Kakao Pay will also be available for payment on Grab, Southeast Asia's largest ride-sharing service.

Kakao Pay announced on the 29th that it will launch local payment services in Thailand targeting Central Retail affiliates.

Central Retail is Thailand's largest retail company, popular among tourists, operating shopping centers of various affiliates. Accordingly, Kakao Pay users can use Kakao Pay payment services at more than 3,000 Central Retail stores across Thailand, including ▲department stores (Central World, Central Embassy, Robinson) ▲drugstores (Matsumoto Kiyoshi, Tops Vita) ▲stores (Tops Club, Muji).

By the third quarter, Kakao Pay payments will also be available on Grab, Southeast Asia's largest ride-sharing company. When booking transportation through the Grab application (app), Kakao Pay will be added as a payment method. According to Grab, the number of foreign tourists visiting Thailand exceeded 12 million in the first half of this year. Among them, Korean tourists rank fifth in size.

Kakao Pay has built a system that allows users to make payments overseas just like they do domestically. Users can conveniently pay without separate currency exchange at offline merchants displaying the 'Kakao Pay' or 'Alipay Plus' logos. Payment is made by presenting the QR code or barcode on the payment screen or by scanning the QR code posted in the store, and the payment is processed with 'Kakao Pay Money.' All payment details can be checked in real-time through the Kakao Pay app and KakaoTalk. Payment amounts are displayed not only in local currency but also in Korean won.

Currently, Kakao Pay payment services are available or being tested in more than 10 countries, including Japan, China, Thailand, France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Australia. An environment is also being established to enable payment with overseas simple payment services at domestic Kakao Pay merchants. Integration with major Asian simple payment providers, accounting for about 80% of visitors to Korea, such as Alipay (China), Alipay HK (Hong Kong), GCash (Philippines), Touch 'n Go (Malaysia), TrueMoney (Thailand), Tinaba (Italy), PayPay (Japan), EasyLink (Singapore), and Dana (Indonesia), has been completed or is in progress.

A Kakao Pay official stated, "We will actively increase cooperation with overseas companies so that Kakao Pay alone can be used in more countries in the future."

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