Naver to launch mobile payment platform in June 2015

Naver Pay will allow users to pay via mobile by enabling transactions with the users Naver ID, a password and the cellphone number of the recipient.

The payment can be made either by a credit card or a direct debit via bank accounts, without having to go through the identification procedures usually required for a money transfer in South Korea.

Daum Kakao, the creator of South Korean mobile messenger KakaoTalk and the archrival of Naver, has been pumping out its own payment tools, backed by the number of KakaoTalk users reaching more than 35 million.

Naver has allegedly tied up with five credit card firms, including BC Card and Samsung Card, and is in talks with five local banks to forge the partnership to provide Naver Pay.

The portal operator has also said it plans to adopt a fingerprint-based recognition function into the mobile payment platform to verify users. The users only need to register their ID and payment details once on the Naver Pay account.

Naver runs mobile payment platforms on the portal, namely Naver Checkout, Naver Mileage and Naver Cash. Naver Pay will be the updated version of Naver Checkout, integrated with the other two payment tools.

Naver Checkout has 15 million users and more than 40,000 affiliated merchants.