Kakao Pay has expanded its collaboration with Japan-based PayPay to allow the latter’s users to conduct offline payments at over two million merchants across Korea.
As detailed by Kakao Pay, an online payments company based in South Korea, on 25 September 2025, PayPay’s network was linked to Korean offline stores, enabling Japanese travellers to have the same payment experience abroad as they do in their country.
Kakao Pay and PayPay’s partnership
This move, made in collaboration with Kakao Pay, comes as PayPay’s first expansion outside of Japan. Currently, the company positions itself among the country’s largest cashless payment providers, with over 70 million registered users, according to its data. After China, Japan represents the largest source of visitors for Korea, with 1.92 million tourists coming into the country between January and July 2025.
The newly launched service was achieved through a three-way collaboration between Kakao Pay, PayPay, and Alipay+ and comes after the former’s own outbound expansion back in November 2024. At that time, the company provided Korean tourists with the ability to leverage Kakao Pay for offline payments in Japan through PayPay’s local network.
Furthermore, Kakao Pay is among the only Korean companies to connect foreign payment networks to offline merchants in Korea. Before this announcement, the company linked Vietnam’s ZaloPay, Pakistan’s NayaPay, and Uzbekistan’s Humo to Korean stores. Additionally, on 22 September 2025, Kakao Pay rolled out NFC payments, scaling cross-border payment options for Korean users in the US, Europe, and Oceania.
Commenting on the news, representatives from Kakao Pay emphasised that, with PayPay launching in Korea, individuals across the two countries can now leverage their home payment services when travelling, in turn benefiting from more convenience and a familiar payment experience. They added that this initiative reflects the optimal partnerships the company has created since launching in Japan in 2019, with it planning to continue improving cross-border benefits and capabilities for travellers between the two regions.
