KakaoPay Strengthens Financial Standing with ₩167 Trillion Transactions

Kakao Pay recorded overwhelming growth in 2024, further strengthening its leadership in the digital financial platform sector. It announced strong performance, achieving an annual transaction volume (TPV) of 167.3 trillion won, a 19% increase year-over-year, and consolidated revenue of 766.2 billion won, a 25% increase. Notably, the financial services sector drove explosive growth, surpassing 10 trillion won in annual transaction volume and seeing revenue surge by a remarkable 71%, leading the overall growth. Excluding one-time losses related to TMON and WeMakePrice (31.5 billion won), the annual adjusted net profit was 15.9 billion won, suggesting that an actual turnaround to profitability was possible. Business indicators are also positive. Monthly active users (MAU) reached 24.02 million, and the number of transactions per core service user increased by 10% to 92. The number of domestic merchants exceeded 1.13 million, a 14% increase, primarily in the food and beverage industry. Q4 performance further highlights the strong advance of financial services. Financial service revenue reached an all-time high of 84 billion won, expanding its share of overall revenue to 38%. Revenue from investment and insurance services each grew nearly threefold year-over-year, leading this upward trend. Offline payment transaction volume surged by 138%, continuing its triple-digit growth, while overseas payment and remittance services grew by 31% and 14% respectively, driving strong overall performance in the payment business. The performance of its subsidiaries is also remarkable. Kakao Pay Securities achieved a splendid feat, increasing its Q4 revenue by 171% year-over-year and recording its first quarterly profit since its inception. Stock transaction volume set a new record high at 17.3 trillion won, and the number of stock transactions increased by 330%. Kakao Pay General Insurance also recorded nearly fivefold revenue growth year-over-year through the successful launch of its overseas travel insurance and various new products. Notably, the overseas travel insurance garnered an enthusiastic market response, with over 3 million subscriptions within two years of its launch. Platform competitiveness has also been strengthened. Kakao Pay Money users surpassed 31 million by year-end, with the user base expanding across all age groups, particularly with a 1.5 million increase in users aged 50 and above. Kakao Pay app MAU increased by 58% and WAU by 79%, demonstrating the success of app activation. For 2025, Kakao Pay aims for continuous growth through three key strategies. First, through the vertical expansion of its core businesses, it will strengthen value-added services for simple payments and expand support for loan partners. Second, it will broaden its scope into traffic-based non-financial businesses (telecommunication product brokerage, advertising) through content and app activation. Lastly, it plans to evolve into a personalized financial advisor platform by leveraging the industry's highest level of MyData and its own data, combined with generative AI, to maximize data monetization. These achievements and strategies demonstrate that Kakao Pay has firmly established its position as a fintech leader in 2024. Innovation in AI technology and data-driven personalized financial services is expected to be a key growth engine in the future.