[Asia Economy Reporter Yu Je-hoon] Commercial banks, which have been helplessly pushed aside by big tech's 'super apps,' are consolidating various services into a single application with multiple functions, known as the 'one app' strategy.
According to the financial sector on the 20th, KB Kookmin Bank has decided to terminate the services of the 'Liiv' and 'MyMoney' apps by the end of June and August, respectively. The functions of these apps will be integrated into the KB Star Banking app.
KB Kookmin Bank is not the only one focusing on the one app strategy. Shinhan Bank also introduced the 'Shinhan SOL' app in 2018, which integrated the functions of six existing apps (Shinhan S Bank, Sunny Bank, Smart Real-name Verification, Online Registration, S Account Wallet, Sunny Calculator, etc.). Additionally, Hana Bank and Woori Bank are also accelerating their efforts to build one app.
Of course, the one app strategy is not yet an easy task. A search on Google Play, the electronic software distribution (ESD) platform for Google Android, shows that the four major commercial banks still distribute dozens of apps.
Among these, most are the banks' main banking apps, corporate and overseas customer-exclusive apps, but older banking apps such as 'KB Star Banking Mini' and 'Shinhan S Bank mini' are still noticeable.
The reason these older apps are still distributed is simple: there are still customers using them for various reasons. The elderly and some individual business owners are typical examples.
A commercial bank official said, "Even if they are old apps, it is not easy to eliminate them recklessly as there are still customers using them. However, since the one app strategy is the path to follow, we will naturally induce a decrease in users and move toward integrating banking apps in the mid to long term."
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