The value of electronic payments in South Korea extended its upward trend to an all-time high in 2025, driven by steady growth in online transactions, central bank data showed Friday.
The daily average value of payment gateway services reached 1.55 trillion won ($1.04 billion) last year, up 9.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Bank of Korea.
The daily average number of transactions also rose 11.8 percent on-year to 33.64 million.
Both the number of transactions and the value marked the highest levels since the central bank began compiling the related data in 2007.
PG services refer to services that transmit and receive payment and settlement information in e-commerce, facilitating the collection of payments from buyers and their final transfer to sellers.
Growth in PG services was led by credit card payment processing, which accounts for about 75 percent of the total by value.
The daily average usage of prepaid electronic payment services also gained 8.0 percent from a year earlier to 36.54 million transactions, while their value increased 11.0 percent to 1.31 trillion won in 2025.
The use of simple payment services, which allow users to make payments using passwords or biometric authentication, also gained further traction.
The daily average number of simple payment transactions reached 35.57 million last year, up 14.9 percent from a year earlier, while their value rose 14.6 percent to 1.11 trillion won.
In terms of provider share, electronic financial service companies, such as Naver Pay and Kakao Pay, increased their share to 54.9 percent last year from the previous year's 50.5 percent.
But the shares of mobile phone manufacturers and financial institutions declined to 23.7 percent and 21.5 percent, respectively, the data showed. (Yonhap)
