Boku Inc (LON:BOKU), a leading global mobile payment and mobile identity company, has announced the launch of payments via KakaoPay in the Republic of Korea for one of its global video games partners. KakaoPay will augment the direct carrier billing payment options already provided by Boku across all three major mobile operators in South Korea.
Consumers can now make digital purchases through the video game store using their KakaoPay mobile wallet via the Boku platform. Boku’s support for tokenized payments enable customers to have their ‘mobile payment on file’ for subscription or repeat purchases without having to reauthorize payment details.
Mobile payments ensure convenience and accessibility for almost all Koreans, due to ubiquitous mobile phone adoption and rapidly accelerating mobile eWallet usage. Of the roughly 70 million mobile subscriptions in South Korea, over 25 million of them are monthly active users of KakaoPay.
Mobile payments are already popular in South Korea and are forecast to continue to grow at a 12.8% CAGR, reaching $189 billion by 2025. In 2019, eCommerce payments in South Korea via direct carrier billing reached $3.5 billion annually while eWallets passed $12 billion annually*.
Jon Prideaux, CEO of Boku, commented, “eWallets are the new payments phenomenon: developed for mobile, popular with consumers and merchants, growing fast and accounting for more than 60% of payments in Asia. This partnership shows how Boku has become a genuine local payment provider, expanding our offering beyond carrier billing also to support eWallets. We are excited to give our merchants more ways to grow their business.”
*Worldpay Global Payment Report 2020
