Naver Pay outguns rivals in mobile payment race

[THE INVESTOR] Internet giant Naver’s online payment solution Naver Pay has been outpacing its competitors, such as Kakao Pay and Samsung Pay, in the digital payment sector with its transaction volumes and number of subscribers growing at a faster pace.

The Internet giant said that the number of cumulative transactions of Naver Pay has exceeded 180 million since the launch of the mobile payment solution a year ago while the total amount of payments stood at 2.5 trillion won ($2.2 billion). 

The company said that 11 million out of the entire 200 million Naver Pay subscribers paid for their online purchase at least once over the past year, and they used the digital payment solution 16.4 times on average.

The figures are impressive, compared to those of its competitors.

The number of subscribers of Kakao Pay, a mobile payment solution run by the nation’s most-used mobile messenger Kakao, has crossed 10 million as of June 20 and the number of accumulative transactions crossed 40 million.

Samsung said last month that its mobile payment solution, launched in August 2015, saw its cumulative transaction volume exceed 1 trillion won. The number of Samsung Pay subscribers stands at a little more than 5 million worldwide, including 3 million in Korea.

According to a survey of 263 stores in partnership with Naver for Naver Pay, 85 percent said the digital payment system has helped boost their sales by 1.4 percent on average.

The respondents cited convenience, a reliable security system and a reasonable policy as some of the strengths of the mobile payment.

“After we adopted Naver Pay three months ago, our sales surged 100 percent,” said Jeong Gi-yeol, CEO from Attrangs, an online shopping mall. The number of partner stores of Naver Pay currently stands at 92,000, up from 50,000 since the beginning of last year.

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)