After Three Attempts, Listed Kakao Pay, "Strengthening Insurance and Investment... Will Evolve into a National Financial Platform"

Strengthening MTS, Insurance, Loan Brokerage... Exploring Overseas Expansion Opportunities
Listing on KOSPI on the 3rd of Next Month... Korea's First 100% Equal Allocation of IPO Shares

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jin-ho] "The ultimate goal is to enable users to easily and conveniently enjoy various financial services with just KakaoPay, without needing to use multiple apps. We also plan to actively explore opportunities for mobile stock trading services (MTS), launching a digital non-life insurance company, and overseas expansion."

On the 25th, Ryu Young-joon, CEO of KakaoPay, expressed his ambition to transform the company into a "national lifestyle financial platform" through insurance, investment, and loan brokerage at an online initial public offering (IPO) press conference. CEO Ryu emphasized, "We will increase market share based on overwhelming user numbers, convenience, and technological capabilities that combine stability compared to competitors."

KakaoPay succeeded in listing on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) after three attempts. Previously, the listing was delayed twice due to controversies over overvaluation and regulatory impacts on financial platforms. At the press conference, CEO Ryu devoted considerable time to actively emphasizing the sustainability of KakaoPay's growth drivers.

First, KakaoPay announced plans to develop various new services and convenience features to target a market worth 46 trillion KRW. KakaoPay Securities' MTS is currently in preparation, and early next year, the launch of a digital non-life insurance company will provide lifestyle-oriented insurance products and services.

In the loan brokerage sector, KakaoPay plans to offer financial service opportunities to people with limited financial history by utilizing its self-developed alternative credit scoring model. Following credit loan products, it will sequentially introduce jeonse (key money deposit) loans, mortgage loans, and card loans.

Aligned with the full implementation of MyData, asset management services will also be enhanced. CEO Ryu explained, "We will serve as a 'mobile asset management advisor' by providing users with personalized analysis services, asset status inquiries, and financial product offerings based on income and expenditure analysis."

KakaoPay intends to seek business opportunities targeting the overseas market worth 30 trillion KRW by partnering with global fintech companies and will actively pursue mergers and acquisitions of promising fintech firms to discover sustainable growth drivers.

Since starting with simple payments in 2014, KakaoPay's cumulative number of subscribers reached 36.5 million as of the end of June this year, with monthly active users (MAU) hitting 20 million. The transaction volume over the recent 12 months from the second half of last year to the first half of this year was 85 trillion KRW, and revenue has rapidly grown at an average annual rate of 102% over the past two years.

Based on these achievements, KakaoPay turned profitable in the first half of this year. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), an indicator of cash-generating ability from business operations, reached 8.2 billion KRW. Notably, the revenue share from financial services, which was only 2% in 2019, rose to 32% in the first half of this year.

Meanwhile, KakaoPay will conduct a general subscription for two days starting today and will be listed on the 3rd of next month. KakaoPay plans to allocate 100% of the public offering shares reserved for general subscribers equally for the first time in Korea. The minimum subscription is 20 shares, so anyone with a subscription deposit of 900,000 KRW can become a KakaoPay shareholder.