Usage time increased by 510%! South Korea's digital financial market is developing rapidly

South Koreans used fintech companies' apps almost nine times more often than traditional banks each month last year , according to a report released Thursday, suggesting a rapidly growing digital finance market driven by a young and tech-savvy population.

Mobile users of the nation’s top five fintech apps, including payment solutions Kakao Pay, Toss and Kakao Bank, used the apps an average of 225 times per month last year, the equivalent of an average of seven times per day, according to global mobile app analytics firm App Annie.

The monthly figure is 8.9 times higher than the number of times mobile users use the top five banking apps each month, such as those run by Woori Bank and Hana Bank , and the firm said the gap between the use of fintech and traditional banking apps appears to be the largest in the world.

It is understood that the representative fintech application "Kakao Pay" was used for more than 54.8 million minutes last year, an increase of 510% over the previous year. The average monthly usage time increased from 2.6 minutes per user to 5.2 minutes, and the average number of sessions per user increased from 5.7 times per user to 9.1 times .

Last year, the total number of downloads of financial apps in South Korea increased by 10% from the previous year, and usage time increased by 65%.

Market observers say South Korean users have become increasingly reliant on easy-to-use mobile services, mostly provided by emerging fintech firms, amid the pandemic that began early last year .

"Mobile money transfer services as well as 'micro-investment' have gained popularity during the pandemic as people increasingly use mobile services instead of offline services," a Kakao Pay spokesperson said.

App Ani said: “This growth was led by investment and trading (MTS) apps, which spawned new phrases such as ‘Donghak Ant Movement’ and ‘Young Cull’. In 2020, the time spent by mobile users on stock trading apps increased by 120% year-on-year, well above the global average of 55%.”

As the government has been working to relax strict financial regulations, the local market expects convenient mobile services to become more common.

South Korea

Payment

finance

bank