Kakao leverages 40 million digital wallets, 20 million payment users to push into AI, stablecoin markets

Kakao Group's financial affiliates are pushing into the AI and stablecoin markets, backed by more than 40 million digital wallet users and over 20 million monthly payment users. The group plans to expand from personalized financial services to digital asset payments by combining Kakao Pay's payment and remittance infrastructure with Kakao Bank's banking platform.

At the group's first joint analyst briefing on Tuesday, Kakao unveiled the growth strategies of its financial subsidiaries. Kakao Pay CEO Shin Won-keun outlined plans to build AI-driven hyper-personalized finance and a digital asset ecosystem, while Kakao Bank CEO Yoon Ho-young identified the transition to an "AI-native bank" as the company's core priority. The two firms are expected to form the techfin business unit of Kakao X, a new entity to be spun off following Kakao's planned corporate split.

Kakao Pay's key strength lies in its massive user base. The platform has more than 40 million digital wallet users and over 20 million monthly payment users. As of the end of June, MyData subscribers exceeded 23 million and PayData subscribers surpassed 40 million.

Kakao Pay plans to deepen its personalized financial services by combining financial MyData and payment information with social data from features such as remittances, bill-splitting and gift-giving. The strategy calls for recommending investment products tailored to individual risk profiles and expanding into insurance and loan referrals as well as subscription service brokerage. The company is also developing a proprietary financial AI agent linked to general-purpose AI to deliver services that reflect each user's financial and spending situation, including AI-driven payment capabilities.

Kakao Bank is similarly stepping up its AI financial push, drawing on an average of about 20.3 million monthly active app users in the first half of this year. The bank aims to build services that understand each customer's financial situation by combining data accumulated through its app with a proprietary LLM. It also plans to expand its fee-based and platform businesses, targeting a non-interest income share of more than 40 percent by 2030.

Progress is also accelerating on the digital asset front. Kakao Pay completed a proof-of-concept in September to expand its existing Kakao Pay Money wallet into an integrated wallet capable of managing blockchain-based assets including stablecoins. The pilot verified remittance, payment and settlement functions for digital assets. Kakao Bank is separately validating wallet integration and stability by applying bank-grade security and regulatory standards.

The group is also broadening its global partnerships. After signing an agreement with stablecoin issuer Circle in July, Kakao Group concluded a separate MOU with digital asset infrastructure firm Fireblocks in September to verify distribution solutions and security frameworks. The group is also exploring payment, remittance and financial service development using digital assets with Southeast Asian platform company Grab, Thai financial holding company SCBX and Kyobo Life.

At "Next Finance Korea," a joint event co-hosted with KB Kookmin Bank last month, the group demonstrated proof-of-concept results covering the full cycle from won-denominated stablecoin issuance and redemption to digital wallet transfers and cross-border payment settlement. The event also featured a live demonstration of "agentic payment," in which AI executes transactions on behalf of users. Kakao Group said it will continue building out its digital asset ecosystem through an open collaborative network that brings together financial institutions, platform companies and other participants.