Competition in Korea's financial sector for a "one app" is heating up again. The strategy is to bundle services scattered across affiliates such as banking, cards, securities, and insurance into a single platform to increase customer dwell time. With KB Financial and Woori Financial Group having taken the lead in building integrated platforms, Shinhan Financial Group and Samsung's financial affiliates are also accelerating service overhauls in succession.
According to the financial sector on the 14th, Shinhan Financial Group will launch a new "Super SOL" on the 17th based on "Shinhan SOL Bank." Rather than creating a separate application (app) that combines the functions of major financial affiliates, the key is to integrate services of major affiliates such as cards, securities, and insurance into the bank app with the highest usage frequency.
This is seen as a strategic revision reflecting the limitations of the existing Super SOL. In 2023, Shinhan Financial Group introduced a separate app, Super SOL, that brought together affiliate services such as banking, cards, securities, and insurance, but in many cases users still had to move back to affiliate apps for actual financial transactions.
User response also fell short of expectations. In the first quarter of this year, Super SOL's monthly active users (MAU) totaled 1.84 million, while Shinhan SOL Bank and SOL Pay each secured about 10 million users. In response, Shinhan Financial Group shifted course to strengthen its one-app strategy centered on SOL Bank, which has the largest customer touchpoints, rather than trying to grow a separate super app.
Samsung's financial affiliates are also overhauling the integrated platform Monimo. Samsung Card and Samsung Life Insurance, along with Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, will shut down their standalone apps on the 28th and migrate key functions to Monimo. In the integrated app, users can check affiliate accounts at once, and it offers "Moni Money," a prepaid top-up point usable within the group.
KB Financial built an integrated platform in 2021 by linking affiliate services around "KB Star Banking." As of the end of last year, MAU stood at 14.16 million, the most among commercial bank apps. Woori Financial Group also revamped "Woori WON Banking" in 2024 into the group's integrated platform, combining banking, cards, securities, and capital services.
Financial companies are investing in a one-app strategy to enhance customer convenience and extend dwell time. There has been steady criticism that operating different apps by affiliate causes consumer inconvenience. They can also expect the effect of exposing customers who log in for banking services to card, insurance, and investment products.
However, putting multiple functions into one app can increase its size and slow processing speed. A financial industry official said, "The key is to avoid hurting usability while maintaining the level of existing services."