Kakao Pay is aggressively expanding its offline payment services, setting an ambitious goal to reach 10 million monthly offline payment users by 2027. This strategic move comes amid fierce competition within Korea’s dynamic digital payments market.
During a recent press briefing, the leading financial technology company revealed its current base of approximately 6 million monthly offline payment users. Kakao Pay detailed plans to significantly accelerate this growth through innovative QR-based ordering services, strategic merchant partnerships, and advanced artificial intelligence (AI)-powered payment features.
Kim Sang-ok, head of Kakao Pay’s offline payment division, emphasized the company’s vision: “Our core objective is to establish an inclusive payment infrastructure, empowering users to make payments seamlessly anywhere, regardless of whether a store has a direct affiliation with Kakao Pay.”
The company highlighted its substantial market presence, having secured partnerships with 650,000 offline merchants and processing over 500 million offline payment transactions in the past year alone.
A significant driver for this expansion is “QR Order,” a service launched late last year. This innovative feature enables customers to conveniently order and pay directly from their seats in restaurants and cafes by simply scanning QR codes. Kakao Pay reported that QR Order has already been adopted or confirmed for implementation in approximately 3,000 stores, with its uptake rapidly accelerating since the first quarter.
Furthermore, Kakao Pay is broadening its offline payment coverage by forging extensive merchant partnerships. This strategy is crucial as prominent rivals like Naver Pay and Toss intensify their efforts to strengthen in-store payment ecosystems through proprietary terminals and hardware.
The company reiterates that payments remain the fundamental gateway, seamlessly integrating Kakao Pay’s comprehensive app ecosystem, attractive rewards programs, and its broader suite of financial services.
Oh Seung-jun, head of the payment group at Kakao Pay, articulated the company’s ultimate ambition: “Kakao Pay’s ultimate goal is to become the top-of-mind payment service for users whenever and wherever they need to make a transaction.”
To achieve this, Kakao Pay is also leveraging payment data and advanced artificial intelligence to deliver highly personalized services and significantly enhance user engagement.
Illustrating its commitment to innovation, Kakao Pay is actively developing AI-powered functions designed to recommend the optimal payment methods to users. These recommendations will be tailored based on individual spending patterns, specific card benefits, and existing reward conditions. The company is also preparing to seamlessly integrate its payment capabilities into emerging AI-based environments across various Kakao services.
This aggressive expansion initiative aligns perfectly with Kakao Pay’s exceptional financial performance, having recently reported record-breaking first-quarter earnings. Revenue surged by 41.7 percent year-over-year to 300.3 billion won ($202 million), while operating profit saw an impressive 630.9 percent increase, reaching 32.2 billion won.
jwc
