Last year, the daily average usage amount of the simple payment service approached 960 billion won, setting an all-time high.
According to the Bank of Korea's report on 'the status of electronic payment service utilization in 2024' published on the 20th, the usage amount of the simple payment service last year was 959.4 billion won, an increase of 9.6% compared to the previous year. The number of transactions was 30.72 million, representing a 12.3% increase. Both figures are the highest since the relevant statistics began to be compiled in 2016.
The simple payment service refers to payment and remittance services that utilize biometric information such as fingerprints and faces or simple authentication methods such as passwords. This includes services provided by mobile phone manufacturers like Samsung Pay, LG Pay, and Apple Pay, as well as services operated by electronic financial companies like Kakao Pay and Naver Financial.
When divided by service providers, the electronic financial companies accounted for 481.4 billion won, mobile phone manufacturers 244.28 billion won, and financial institutions 233.75 billion won. Each of these figures increased by 12.5%, 9.1%, and 4.4%, respectively. The number of transactions was recorded at 18.09 million for electronic financial companies, 9.25 million for mobile phone manufacturers, and 3.45 million for financial institutions.
Among electronic financial companies, there was a significant increase in the use of simple payments utilizing prepaid electronic payment methods such as Naver Pay and Kakao Pay. The usage amount reached 162 billion won, and the number of transactions was 8.57 million, marking increases of 15.6% and 23.4%, respectively. The share of these payments within the simple payment service also rose, from 31.2% in 2022 to 32.8% and then to 33.7% last year.
The prepaid-based simple remittance service, including those from electronic financial companies, also saw an average daily increase to 912 billion won, a rise of 17.4%, while the number of transactions increased by 13.4% to 7.21 million. Simple remittance is a service that allows users to send prepaid amounts charged to their mobile phones through phone numbers or social networking services.
A Bank of Korea official noted, 'As the scale of simple payment services expands, the share of electronic financial companies is increasing, while that of financial institutions is decreasing,' adding, 'In particular, among electronic financial companies, the share of simple payment usage based on prepaid electronic payment methods is continuously growing.'