The average daily amount used for simple payment services topped 1 trillion won last year, hitting an all-time high.
According to the "Status of electronic payment service usage in 2025," which the Bank of Korea released on the 20th, the amount used for simple payment services last year was 110.53 billion won, up 14.6% from the previous year. The number of transactions rose 14.9% to 35.57 million. Both figures are the highest since related statistics began in 2016.
Simple payment services refer to payment and remittance services that use easy authentication methods such as biometric information like fingerprints or faces, or passwords. They include services provided by mobile phone manufacturers such as Samsung Pay, LG Pay, and Apple Pay, as well as services operated by electronic financial companies like Kakao Pay and Naver Financial.
Breaking down the amounts used by service provider, electronic financial companies accounted for 606.41 billion won, mobile phone manufacturers 261.56 billion won, and financial companies 237.28 billion won. These were increases of 24.6%, 7%, and 1.8%, respectively, from the previous year. In terms of the number of transactions, electronic financial companies logged 22.672 million, mobile phone manufacturers 9.53 million, and financial companies 3.372 million.
Among electronic financial companies, simple payments using prepaid electronic payment instruments, such as those by Naver Pay and Kakao Pay, surged. The amount used reached 206.09 billion won, and the number of transactions hit 11.232 million, up 27.2% and 31.1%, respectively. The share within simple payment services (by amount) also rose from 49.1% in 2023 to 50.5% in 2024, and to 54.9% last year.
Last year, simple remittance services based on prepaid funds averaged 978.52 billion won per day, up 7.3%. The number of transactions increased 2.9% to 7.421 million. Simple remittance is a service that transfers prepaid funds charged to a mobile phone via a phone number or social networking services.