[Market Focus] Key Players in Local Currency: Cucon Aligns with Kona I for Expansion

Cucon is showing strong performance. Cucon is working to secure merchant infrastructure and expand sales through a joint business with Bizplay, the leading company in the local currency market. It is also forming partnerships with local currency operators such as Kona I and KT.

There is growing optimism that President Lee Jaemyung will accelerate efforts to revitalize the local economy by significantly expanding the issuance of local currency (local gift certificates), which appears to be influencing the stock price. The scale of the second supplementary budget for economic stimulus is estimated at around 20 trillion to 30 trillion won. It is reported that the government is also considering including an expansion of local currency issuance in the supplementary budget proposal.

Previously, the Democratic Party of Korea proposed a supplementary budget of 34.7 trillion won in February for economic recovery and growth, allocating 23.5 trillion won to the livelihood recovery sector. The consumption coupon program, amounting to 13.166 trillion won, is the largest single initiative. This includes 12.805 trillion won to provide 250,000 won in local currency per person to 51.22 million people, and an additional 361 billion won to provide 100,000 won per person to 3.61 million people in the basic livelihood security, near-poverty, and single-parent family categories.

As of 9:59 a.m. on June 5, Cucon was trading at 29,650 won, up 7.82% from the previous day. Since December 3 of last year, Kona I has risen by more than 370%. During the same period, Cucon has increased by 100%.

Previously, on May 30, President Lee Jaemyung described the policy to expand local currency issuance as "a policy worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize."

Cucon, together with its affiliate Bizplay, provides local currency services. By utilizing Cucon's API, they have built a wide-ranging financial infrastructure. Cucon owns the largest number of real-time dedicated networks with financial institutions in Korea, supporting the technology required for local currency operations such as payment, authentication, and settlement.

Bizplay is the top operator in public mobile gift certificate distribution, running its mobile gift certificate business based on payment infrastructure at 1.8 million ZeroPay-affiliated merchants nationwide. Local gift certificates are issued and distributed for 26 local governments across the country, including Gyeongsangnam-do, Gangwon-do, and Jeolla-do, under the "Act on the Promotion of the Use of Local Gift Certificates," serving as a sales agency. Bizplay has also been selected by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the central government, as the issuer of mobile Onnuri gift certificates, which can be used in traditional markets nationwide.

Cucon is collaborating with Kona I. Cucon provides payment APIs such as withdrawal transfer, deposit transfer, ARS (automated response system) authentication, and one-won account authentication to the Kona I platform. In addition to payment APIs, Cucon is strengthening its partnership with Kona I by expanding into data APIs and broadening the scope of API utilization.