Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
Toss emerges as marketing platform for financial firms
By Kim Bo-eun
By Kim Bo-eun
Toss, which began as a money transfer app, has developed into an in-demand marketing platform for financial firms' products.
The application, which now offers comprehensive services including sales of credit cards, insurance and savings products, is proving to be an effective tool for companies to promote their offerings.
Toss' latest promotion with Hyundai Card became one of the most searched keywords on a major portal site last week.
The promotion states that a customer who signs up for a certain card and spends 80,000 won with it will get the same amount back in cash.
While this appears to be a cost burden, the model works for card issuers, as selling their products on mobile applications without agents saves costs. The card issuers and Toss collectively bear marketing costs.
This is a better strategy than the excessive expenditures card firms have undertaken to increase customers in tough market circumstances. Besides, the government has also limited the amount of money that card issuers can spend on marketing.
Financial firms are eager to collaborate with Toss, as the majority of its users are potential customers in their 20s and 30s.
They have been coming up with benefits attractive to young customers. KB Kookmin Card's promotion last month stated a customer signing up for a certain card and spending 100,000 won with it would get 15 free iced Americanos from Starbucks.
Banks are offering savings products with higher-than-market interest rates on Toss.
The collaboration is a win-win strategy for both financial firms and Toss, as the former is able to utilize the latter's platform dominated by young customers as well as save costs, and the latter receives fees for the products it sells.
Industry sources say companies are lining up to sell their products on the platform.
"We have 13 million users and as a channel advertising financial products, our partnerships with financial companies continue to grow," a Toss official said.