Naver Financial has integrated the Magnetic Secure Transfer (MST) payment feature of Samsung Pay into its offline in-store payment system, Naver Pay.
This decision has expanded the payment locations from traditional franchises to various small and medium-sized merchants. It has also significantly increased the number of points users can earn.
April metrics released by Naver Financial provide insight into the early success of this integration. The integration began in late March.
Primarily driven by the Samsung Pay feature, downloads of the Naver Pay application increased 186% month-over-month to approximately 470,000.
The Naver Pay app also became the No. 1 app/game integration in the Google Play Store and held the positions of No. 1 overall app and No. 1 financial app for a week or two in April.
On-site offline payments saw a 123% increase in the average total payment volume (TPV) per user compared to the previous month, with 72% of users making two or more repeat payments.
By age group, on-site offline payment TPV grew 206% month-over-month for those aged 30-40 and 219% month-over-month for those aged 20+.
Users across the country participated in nearly 14 million point collections in April.
With the increase in TPV, the benefits of Naver Pay, offline in-store payment for users, also increased significantly.
In April, the number of users who collected more than 10,000 points increased by 550% month-on-month, a benefit that was added to the benefits of credit cards linked to the payment service.
As of April, Naver Pay offline in-store payments were accepted at more than 581,000 locations, about 20% of the 3 million merchants nationwide that accept Samsung Pay.
In addition, the range of participating merchants has expanded to include businesses ranging from small restaurants to hospitals, pharmacies, gas stations, and even car dealerships.
In May, MST-based Samsung Pay payments will also be available through Naver.
A representative from Naver Financial expressed confidence that Naver Pay will continue to be users' preferred payment service for everyday payments, both online and offline.
