Simple Payment Market Expands... Average Daily Transaction Amount Surpasses 1 Trillion Won for the First Time

Bank of Korea Releases 2025 First-Half Electronic Payment Service Usage Report
Average Daily Simple Payment Surpasses 1.0464 Trillion Won in First Half, Up 11.4%

With the rise in the use of simple payment services, the average daily transaction amount has surpassed 1 trillion won for the first time.

According to the "Status of Electronic Payment Services Usage in the First Half of 2025" released by the Bank of Korea on September 29, the average daily usage of simple payment (simple remittance) services in the first half of this year reached 33.78 million transactions and 1.0464 trillion won. These figures represent increases of 13.7% and 11.4%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

Simple payment refers to a method of making payments easily using information such as credit cards or bank accounts stored on a smartphone, with authentication done via passwords, fingerprints, facial recognition, or other simple means.

The average daily transaction amount, which stood at 846.1 billion won in the first half of 2023, steadily increased to 906.4 billion won in the second half of 2023, 939.3 billion won in the first half of 2024, and 974.4 billion won in the second half of 2024, finally surpassing 1 trillion won for the first time in the first half of this year.

By service provider, the share of electronic financial companies such as KakaoPay and NaverPay rose to 55.1%. However, the proportion of usage based on prepaid funds slightly declined from 33.6% in the second half of last year to 33.3% in the first half of this year.

The share of mobile phone manufacturers such as Samsung Pay and Apple Pay decreased from 25.8% to 23.9% over the same period. In the first half of this year, the average daily number of simple payment transactions and the transaction amount for mobile phone manufacturers were 9.104 million and 250.12 billion won, respectively. While these figures increased by 1.5% and 5.4% year-on-year, they fell far short of the growth rates recorded by electronic financial companies (25.4% and 23.7%).

The share of financial companies such as KB Pay and Shinhan SOL Pay dropped from 23.2% in the second half of last year to 21% in the first half of this year. The average daily number of simple payment transactions decreased by 12% year-on-year to 3.152 million, while the transaction amount also fell by 6.9% to 219.44 billion won.

The usage of prepaid-based simple remittance services in the first half of this year averaged 7.61 million transactions and 980.7 billion won per day, up 7.4% and 9.1%, respectively, from the same period a year earlier. This increase is attributed to the growing use of simple remittance through Toss, NaverPay, KakaoPay, and similar services.

Credit card payment agency services are also on the rise. In the first half of this year, the average daily usage of electronic payment gateway (PG) services reached 33.14 million transactions and 1.5319 trillion won, representing increases of 11.8% and 8.9%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. Credit card payment agency services, which account for 74% of PG service transaction amounts, grew by 10.6% year-on-year, while account transfer transaction amounts also saw a significant increase of 26.2%. As prepaid service providers expanded the range of merchants and benefits to promote the use of their own prepaid funds, other payment agency services such as prepaid electronic payment methods and gift certificates also increased by 26.1% over the same period.

With the continued growth of simple payment and remittance, the usage of prepaid electronic payment method services (average daily) reached 34.38 million transactions and 1.2909 trillion won in the first half of this year, up 4.1% and 11.2%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. These services refer to paying for goods, transportation fees, or remitting money using prepaid funds charged in advance, often linked to bank accounts.

As of the end of June this year, there were a total of 242 electronic payment service providers, an increase of 27 from the end of last year. This includes 218 electronic financial companies and 24 financial companies.

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