Naver Cloud Integrates 'External Payment Service' with GamePot... First in Korea

Business Agreement (MOU) with Danal

Jiman Park, Executive Director of Danal (left), and Sangyoung Han, Executive Director of Strategy and Planning at Naver Cloud

Naver Cloud announced on the 18th that it will integrate external payment services into GamePot, a game-dedicated unified management service, for the first time in Korea.

GamePot is a comprehensive game service that provides various game operation tools such as authentication, payment, and management. Naver Cloud signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Danal, a specialized integrated payment company, and will launch external payment services on GamePot starting from the 18th of next month. Naver Cloud explained, "This is the first case in Korea of linking domestic external payment modules and game services instead of in-app payments."

The company stated that this agreement will significantly improve the mobile game payment structure, which was mainly based on in-app payments. Unlike the existing in-app payment system where game companies were charged a 30% commission rate, using GamePot’s external payment service reduces the commission rate to below 10%, ranging from a minimum of 1.8% depending on the payment method.

GamePot can easily integrate with external payment systems through numerous global electronic payment gateway (PG) service partnerships held by Danal, allowing the use of various payment methods including credit cards, mobile phone payments, bank transfers, virtual accounts, gift certificates, and virtual asset Paycoin (PCI). GamePot also provides detailed functions to block illegal activities related to payments, such as refund blocking and user restriction settings.

In September last year, the ‘In-App Payment Prevention Act’ was enacted in Korea. In-app payments, which use the platform’s own system for payments, have been continuously criticized for high commission rates and forcing specific payment methods. With the enforcement of this law, Google and Apple have allowed third-party payment methods, leading many game companies to consider adopting external payment systems, and related discussions are actively ongoing.

Hansang Young, Executive Director of Strategy and Planning at Naver Cloud, said, "The integration of this external payment service will be an important opportunity to increase the inflow from in-app payments to external payments and change the landscape of the in-game payment market," adding, "We plan to continuously expand services, including adding identity verification services with Danal."