As claims emerged that the purchase of Onnuri gift certificates might be suspended ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, the Small Enterprise and Market Service (SEMAS) stepped in to clarify the situation.
On the 3rd, SEMAS issued a statement saying, "During the Lunar New Year holiday period, digital Onnuri gift certificates can be purchased normally in both card and mobile formats," adding, "However, the gifting function for mobile gift certificates will only be available until January 10."
They further stated, "To minimize inconvenience caused by restrictions on the mobile gift certificate gifting function, we plan to actively promote the purchase and use of card-type gift certificates, which have no such restrictions."
Since this month, SEMAS has entrusted the integrated operation of card and mobile types to the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation (KOMSCO). However, due to delays in KOMSCO’s platform development, SEMAS requested Bizplay, the current operator of the mobile Onnuri gift certificate platform, to continue operations until February.
At a press conference held on the same day, Seok Chang-gyu, chairman of Webcash Group which operates Bizplay, claimed that KOMSCO’s failure to build the platform would cause problems in the distribution of gift certificates.
SEMAS explained, "There have been some schedule delays due to differences in opinions during the transfer process between Bizplay and KOMSCO and errors found during data verification, but we plan to proceed without disruption through mediation efforts," adding, "KOMSCO has built the corporate purchase (Onnuri gift certificate) site, and existing policy data such as discount rate changes will be reflected within this month."
However, prior to the operation of KOMSCO’s integrated platform, services such as the purchase of Onnuri gift certificates are expected to be temporarily suspended for about two weeks starting February 15. SEMAS will provide further announcements regarding the temporary service suspension in the future.
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