Concerns Over Growth Stagnation at KakaoPay... Expansion of Virtual Assets and Real Estate Services

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunju Lee] Kakao Pay is focusing on strengthening its asset management services. Amid concerns about Kakao Pay's business model, the company is enhancing user convenience by adding practical services such as real estate and virtual assets.

According to Kakao Pay on the 18th, the company recently decided to expand its asset management services to include real estate and virtual assets, allowing users to view various asset details. Through Kakao Pay, users can register their apartments or officetels where they live to instantly check actual transaction prices. Users can select ‘My Home Management’ under the asset management section in KakaoTalk or the Kakao Pay app to register.

Information from virtual asset exchanges can also be viewed through asset management. This feature was designed to enhance the completeness of asset management by allowing users to check virtual assets in one place. According to Kakao Pay, it is the first to partner with the four major domestic exchanges to enable users to view virtual assets scattered across different exchanges at a glance. The four major domestic virtual asset exchanges are Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax. Through this service, users can check virtual asset prices and sort them by price increase or decrease rates, as well as trading volume.

The company appears to be strengthening services useful for asset management to increase user inflow. Kakao Pay’s main business model is to increase revenue by brokering various financial products. By brokering more products and increasing commission revenue, it can secure growth potential. To do this, it must first increase user dependence on Kakao Pay services. Previously, in November, Kakao Pay also added online payment services to Asiana Airlines.

Kakao Pay stated, “As real estate and virtual assets have become important parts of Kakao Pay users’ asset portfolios, the need for functions that allow clear understanding of these assets has increased, leading to the expansion of service areas. This service expansion was planned to enable users to manage their asset portfolios more rationally and comprehensively, and we will continue to upgrade the service by providing high-quality information.”