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​Kakao Pay garners 20 million users

Kakao has accumulated 20 million users for its mobile payment service, a figure that accounts for 72 percent of South Korea's economically active population, it has said.
Written by Cho Mu-Hyun, Contributing Writer

Kakao Pay, chat giant Kakao's mobile payment service, has accumulated 20 million users in South Korea since its launch in September, 2014, the company has said.

The payment service gained 1.2 million users in that first month, backed by the clout of its chat app and lessened authentication steps compared with more conventional rivals.

Kakao Pay said the 20 million users accounted for 72 percent of South Korea's economically active population, and rivals numbers of subscribers of internet banking services offered by banks.

The service passed the 10 million mark back in June 2016.

The firm's payment business was spun off as a subsidiary in April, thanks to a $200 million investment from Alibaba's Ant Financials in February.

It launched wire transfers to other bank accounts for KakaoTalk users in March.

Last month, it added QR code offline wire transfers.

Kakao Pay is also being used as the money transfer method for Kakao's other services, such as its banking platform Kakao Bank and Kakao T, its transportation services app.

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