Kakao Group is accelerating its push into global markets led by its financial affiliates, moving ahead with what it calls a future-focused finance strategy.
Kakao said Thursday that KakaoBank and KakaoPay are dividing roles overseas to strengthen the group’s financial competitiveness.
The move follows the “global fandom OS” strategy Jeong outlined earlier this year. The plan aims to expand Kakao’s global user base by combining agent artificial intelligence, entertainment intellectual property and Web3 technology. In finance, Kakao has positioned AI-based services and the buildout of global payments infrastructure as key pillars.
KakaoBank is exporting its digital finance model, focusing on Southeast Asia and Central Asia. In Indonesia, it entered the market by investing in the digital bank “Superbank” in partnership with Grab. In Thailand, it is working with a local partner to pursue the establishment of a virtual bank. More recently, it has partnered with Mongolia’s MCS Group to invest in the digital bank “M Bank” and to upgrade credit-scoring models, while also promoting what it describes as a global model for inclusive finance.
KakaoPay is expanding its global payments network to speed its shift into a “global pay” platform. After rolling out QR payments, it introduced NFC payments and is building an environment where the service can be used at major merchants worldwide. The company said it is also focused on providing the same user experience abroad as in South Korea, while strengthening a two-way payments ecosystem that includes payments by foreign visitors in South Korea.
KakaoPay has also joined the Linux Foundation-led “x402 Foundation” to help develop next-generation payment standards. It is also expanding points of contact with Circle, a global stablecoin company, as it explores ways to broaden a digital asset-based financial ecosystem.
Kakao said it is moving faster to build a new financial model that combines AI, finance and payments through an integrated strategy spanning banking, payments and platforms. The group said that if “agentic finance,” in which AI takes part in financial decision-making, is combined with global payments infrastructure, changes to the existing structure of the financial industry could follow.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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