Naver and KakaoPay Soar... Transaction Volume Surpasses 137 Trillion Won Last Year

Published 12 Feb.2022 11:13(KST)

[Asia Economy Reporter Bu Aeri] It has been revealed that the total transaction amount of simple payments by domestic big tech companies reached 137 trillion won last year.

According to the related industry on the 12th, Kakao Pay's transaction amount last year recorded 99 trillion won. It more than doubled in two years from 48 trillion won in 2019.

Looking at each service, payment transactions increased by 68%, financial services by 193%, and remittances by 37%. Shin Won-geun, the appointed CEO of Kakao Pay, said, "It is playing a role as a continuous growth driver."

Kakao Pay gradually expanded its influence by leveraging the simplicity and innovative usability based on the national messenger KakaoTalk, and genuine users are also increasing.

Users who first used Kakao Pay in 2016 paid an average of 66,000 won, but last year, the average payment increased 22 times to 1.45 million won. According to Kakao Pay, 88.5% of these users have been consistently using Kakao Pay for six years. As of the end of last year, Kakao Pay's total number of users was 37.45 million, and the number of monthly active users (MAU) was 21.5 million.

Naver Financial's Naver Pay payment amount in the fourth quarter of last year grew 36% year-on-year to 10.9 trillion won. External payments also increased by 60% due to merchant expansion. The number of monthly payers reached 16 million, up 9% from the previous year.

According to Naver's earnings report, the payment amounts were 8.4 trillion won in the first quarter, 9.1 trillion won in the second quarter, 9.8 trillion won in the third quarter, and 10.9 trillion won in the fourth quarter, showing growth every quarter. The annual total amounted to 38.2 trillion won. However, unlike Kakao Pay's transaction amount which includes remittances, Naver Pay's figure only sums up payment services.

Naver secured more than 230,000 merchants for orders and on-site payments. Han Seong-sook, CEO of Naver, said, "We are closely connecting all payment flows online and offline, domestically and internationally, targeting the over 30 million Naver Pay members."