Kakao Group is accelerating its global push by leaning on its financial affiliates as it moves to execute its next-generation finance strategy.
Kakao said Wednesday that KakaoBank and KakaoPay are splitting roles overseas to strengthen the group’s financial competitiveness.
The effort 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-driven services and the buildout of global payment 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 establish a virtual bank. More recently, it has teamed with Mongolia’s MCS Group to invest in the digital bank M Bank and to upgrade credit-scoring models, part of a broader push to spread an inclusive finance model globally.
KakaoPay is expanding payment infrastructure overseas to speed its shift into a “global pay” platform. After rolling out QR payments, it introduced NFC payments to enable use at major merchants worldwide, and it is focusing on providing the same user experience abroad as in South Korea. It is also covering payments by foreign visitors in South Korea, strengthening a two-way payments ecosystem.
KakaoPay recently joined the x402 Foundation, led by the Linux Foundation, to help build 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 its integrated approach across banking, payments and platforms is accelerating work on a new model that links AI, finance and payments. The company said that if “agentic finance,” in which AI takes part in financial decision-making, is combined with global payment infrastructure, changes to the existing structure of the financial industry could follow.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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