South Korea’s electronic payments reached a new peak in 2025, fueled by the continued expansion of online transactions, according to recent data released by the central bank.
The daily average value of payment gateway (PG) services soared to 1.55 trillion won ($1.04 billion) last year, marking a substantial 9.2 percent increase compared to the previous year, as reported by the Bank of Korea.
Simultaneously, the daily average number of transactions surged by 11.8 percent year-on-year, reaching an impressive 33.64 million.
Both transaction volume and value achieved record highs since the central bank began tracking this data in 2007.
Payment gateway services encompass the transmission and reception of payment and settlement information within e-commerce environments, facilitating seamless payment collection from buyers and subsequent transfer to sellers.
The growth in PG services was primarily driven by credit card payment processing, which accounts for approximately 75 percent of the total transaction value.
Prepaid electronic payment services also experienced significant growth, with the daily average usage increasing by 8.0 percent year-on-year to 36.54 million transactions, while their value rose by 11.0 percent to 1.31 trillion won in 2025.
The adoption of simple payment methods, enabling users to make transactions using passwords or biometric authentication, continued to gain momentum.
The daily average number of simple payment transactions reached 35.57 million last year, reflecting a 14.9 percent increase from the previous year, while their value climbed by 14.6 percent to 1.11 trillion won.
Regarding market share, electronic financial service companies, including Naver Pay and Kakao Pay, expanded their presence to 54.9 percent last year, up from 50.5 percent in the preceding year.
