The No.1 Banking Service is 'Toss'... Surpasses KakaoBank for 3 Consecutive Months

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] Toss has surpassed Kakao Bank's monthly active users (MAU) for three consecutive months. Although the two applications (apps) have been competing closely for dominance, Toss has shown a favorable trend since the beginning of this year.

According to the big data analysis platform Mobile Index on the 11th, Toss's MAU as of last month was 14,273,960. In the case of Kakao Bank, it was 13,154,186, showing a difference of nearly 1.12 million users compared to Toss.

Toss's MAU has steadily increased sharply since April. Toss's users, who were in the 12 million range, increased by nearly 5% to 13,362,179 in April, surpassing Kakao Bank. As of May, Toss's MAU was 13,714,908, while Kakao Bank's was 12,746,810. Last month, Toss surpassed 14 million users, rising to first place in the banking service sector.

According to Mobile Index, cross-users of the two apps were also found to use Toss more frequently. The number of cross-users was 5.67 million. Their average monthly usage time per person was 2 hours for Toss and about 24 minutes for Kakao Bank. The average monthly usage days were 14 days for Toss and 11 days for Kakao Bank.

This trend also seems to be related to Toss's aggressive expansion of Toss Bank. Unlike Kakao Pay, a simple payment service, and Kakao Bank, an internet-only bank, which have separate apps, Toss is implementing a 'one-app' strategy with Toss Bank integrated within the app. Moreover, Toss Bank, launched in October last year, is the youngest among internet-only banks but is attracting users with the most aggressive moves.

It is attracting customers by offering a demand deposit account with an annual interest rate of 2% and a 'Get Interest Now' service that allows users to receive interest whenever they want daily. According to Toss Bank, the number of registered customers exceeded 3.6 million as of last month. The number of customers, which was 1.1 million at the end of last year, has more than tripled in six months. Hong Min-taek, CEO of Toss Bank, said, "Gathering 3.6 million users in nine months means that 14,000 people are joining Toss Bank every day on average," adding, "This proves that (Toss Bank's) services are solving the lack of financial services."

Meanwhile, according to Mobile Index, the total number of financial app users was 40.47 million, a 2% decrease compared to the previous year. Looking at all financial apps, Samsung Pay, Toss, and Kakao Bank had the most users in that order. The integrated app 'Monimo' of Samsung's four financial companies?Samsung Card, Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, and Samsung Securities?launched in April, had an MAU of about 1,566,568 as of May. It still lagged behind the Samsung Securities app (2,240,665) in terms of usage time and usage days. As of last month, its MAU was 1,487,896, showing a declining trend every month.