Orange Square: Revenue Up 73%, Operating Profit Up 58% Last Year — Explosive Growth

As the number of foreign tourists visiting Korea increases, WOWPASS, an all-in-one prepaid card that is revolutionizing their travel experience, is achieving remarkable growth. Orange Square, the operator of WOWPASS, has set new record-high performances for two consecutive years, establishing itself as a key driving force in the domestic inbound tourism market. Last year, Orange Square achieved consolidated sales of 18 billion won, recording an explosive growth rate of 73% compared to the previous year. Operating profit also surged by 58% to 3.3 billion won, successfully achieving both profitability and growth. This solid performance is attributed to the unique competitiveness of the WOWPASS service, which precisely caters to the needs of foreign visitors to Korea. WOWPASS is an all-in-one prepaid card that integrates payment, currency exchange, and public transportation card functions, resolving the inconveniences experienced by foreign tourists in Korea all at once. Beyond being a simple payment method, it is highly praised for providing a 'seamless' user experience through its mobile app, which allows for splitting bills among companions, online payments, mobile transportation card top-ups, use of regional tourism passes, and even the purchase of domestic telecommunication products including a phone number. In particular, Orange Square's self-operated unmanned currency exchange kiosks, strategically installed along the main travel routes of foreign tourists, have maximized service accessibility. Mobile gift certificate and cashback promotions through partnerships with major domestic brands like Olive Young, Daiso, and The Hyundai have stimulated the spending habits of foreign tourists and gained immense popularity. Thanks to these efforts, WOWPASS has been listed alongside Naver Map, Papago, and Kakao Mobility as one of the '2024 Essential Apps for Foreign Tourists' selected by the Korea Tourism Organization, firmly establishing itself as an indispensable item for foreign visitors to Korea. Service indicators also show impressive growth. WOWPASS app subscribers surpassed 1 million within 1 year and 9 months of its launch, and are now on the verge of doubling that to 2 million in just one year. As of March this year, monthly active users (MAU) recorded 450,000, and the number of unmanned currency exchange kiosks is also nearing 300 installations. Not content with this, Orange Square plans to accelerate innovative service development, led by a product development team comprised of experts from top-tier domestic IT companies such as LINE, Naver, and Kakao. Based on its mobile app interface and extensive big data competitiveness regarding foreign consumption, the company plans to diversify its business areas by activating mobile commerce products specialized for K-lifestyle and discovering new K-POP partnership businesses, thereby continuing its robust growth. Lee Jang-baek, CEO of Orange Square, stated, "In 2024, domestic tourism spending by foreign tourists will exceed 22 trillion won, surpassing the entire domestic cosmetics market of approximately 18 trillion won. Currently, 1 in 10 foreign visitors to Korea uses WOWPASS as their payment method. Moving forward, we will strive to go beyond being just a payment method and leap forward as a K-super app platform by discovering new partnership businesses and developing services, doing our best to fulfill WOWPASS's mission of 'delivering moving experiences to foreign visitors to Korea'."