Toss Reports 389.8 Billion KRW Revenue Last Year, Up 230% Year-on-Year

Toss Reports 389.8 Billion KRW Revenue Last Year, Up 230% YoY
Operating Loss Decreases 35% YoY to 72.5 Billion KRW

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] Viva Republica, the operator of 'Toss,' recorded sales of 389.8 billion KRW last year, a 230% increase compared to the previous year.

According to Viva Republica on the 6th, Toss's operating loss last year decreased by 37% during the same period to 72.5 billion KRW.

The platform business operating loss of Toss itself decreased from 115.4 billion KRW the previous year to 22.4 billion KRW. Toss explained that this was due to a reduction in marketing expenses. A Viva Republica official stated, “This is the first time since the service launch in 2015 that Toss has simultaneously achieved annual sales growth and profit improvement.”

Toss has maintained a growth trend by doubling its sales every year for the past five years. Even based on the recent three years when the business scale expanded, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of sales reached 167%.

Seunggun Lee, CEO of Viva Republica, said, “Compared to competitors, not only is the sales scale superior, but the distinctive feature is the balanced growth across the entire financial sector rather than in specific areas in terms of sales quality,” adding, “This year, we expect consolidated sales to surpass 1 trillion KRW as the performance of affiliates expected to grow significantly is reflected.”

Last year, Toss acquired the payment business from LG Uplus and established Toss Payments. A total investment of 189 billion KRW was made for new businesses of major affiliates such as Toss Securities, Toss Bank (tentative name), Toss Insurance, and Toss Vietnam.

The number of platform users continues to grow. As of the end of March this year, Toss users reached 19 million. Customers managing assets by registering their own accounts or cards reached 9.9 million. The cumulative number of registered cards is about 25 million. The cumulative number of connected accounts exceeds 23 million, making it the largest mobile financial platform in Korea.

Toss has been expanding its business-to-business (B2B) model, receiving 83% of its sales directly from partner financial companies such as banks, card companies, and insurance firms. Toss users can compare financial products from various companies and make the most advantageous choices, while financial companies can secure new business opportunities through mobile channels, creating a virtuous cycle.

A representative example is the ‘Find the Right Loan for Me’ service launched on Toss after being designated as an innovative financial service by the Financial Services Commission in August 2019. It allows comparison of credit loan interest rates and loan screening from a total of 29 financial institutions, including 11 first-tier financial institutions, and as of the end of March, the cumulative loan execution amount reached 2.6 trillion KRW.

Financial services, starting with simple remittances, have now expanded to about 40 services. These include inquiry services such as account, card, and credit score checks, as well as banking services like subscription to savings and loan products, and authentication services.

Meanwhile, this performance report includes, for the first time, partial reflection of affiliate sales on a consolidated basis. A company official said, “Considering that affiliates had factors not positive to consolidated profit and loss due to goodwill amortization from business acquisition (Toss Payments) and pre-launch investments (Toss Securities and Toss Innovation Preparation Corporation), it can be seen that Toss's consolidated operating profit improvement last year was even greater.”