Toss Place, a subsidiary of Viva Republica (Toss) that supplies payment terminals and POS (point-of-sale) solutions, said on the 13th that the commercial district with the most concentrated terminal installations turned out to be "Hongdae," a representative hotspot for Generation Z.
To mark its recent milestone of surpassing 200,000 installed merchant locations nationwide, Toss Place analyzed and released terminal installation statistics by major cities and commercial districts across the country. The statistics are based on the "Store (commercial district) information public data" released by the Small Enterprise and Market Service in June, and cover only small and medium-sized merchants, excluding franchise stores.
Terminal density was highest in Seogyo-dong, Mapo District, Seoul, where the Hongdae commercial district is located. About 30% of all stores in this area were found to have installed and be operating Toss Place terminals. This is seen as the result of the rapid spread of Toss Place's stylish design and innovative features such as "FacePay" in districts with strong inflows of young customers. Jeonpo-dong in Busanjin District, which ranked second nationwide, similarly has a commercial district centered on a cafe street dense with aesthetically pleasing spaces and shares the common trait of active inflows of young consumers.
Yeoksam-dong in Gangnam District, Seoul, recorded the highest number of total merchants and payment transactions. As Korea's largest commercial and business district, the area showed especially high payment frequency due to its concentration not only of shopping and dining but also of large hair salons and medical and healthcare businesses.
By city nationwide, Jeju ranked first in terminal installations per capita. Given the characteristics of an area with many tourists, the simple exterior of Toss terminals appears to have worked positively as an interior element. Distribution accelerated as adoption spread across various sectors such as local cafes, rental car businesses, and souvenir shops.
Meanwhile, the regions with the highest growth in terminal installations this year were Sejong Special Self-Governing City and Daejeon Metropolitan City. Compared to the beginning of the year, the number of merchants in September increased by about 220% and 240% in the two regions, respectively. This shows that the transition to a digital payment environment is accelerating, particularly outside the capital area.
The nationwide spread of Toss FacePay, a facial recognition payment service, is also driving the pace of terminal adoption. Leveraging a user experience that completes payment in one second just by looking at the terminal, Toss plans to expand FacePay to 1 million merchant locations by next year.
A Toss Place official said, "Thanks to positive evaluations of the terminal's ease of use, design, and diverse features, we achieved the meaningful milestone of surpassing 200,000 merchants," adding, "We will continue to build a culture of growing together by providing practical insights to merchant owners and prospective entrepreneurs based on nationwide merchant data."