Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Citibank Korea, Yanolja sign strategic deal for global expansion
Yanolja CEO Lee Su-jin, fourth from left, poses for a photo with Citibank Korea CEO Yoo Myung-soon, fourth from right, after signing a business cooperation deal at the headquarters of Yanolja located in Seoul's Gangnam District, Friday. Courtesy of Citibank Korea
By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
Online booking platform Yanolja joined hands with Citibank Korea to cooperate in expanding its business globally, signing a strategic deal recently at Yanolja headquarters. According to Citibank Korea, Monday, Yanolja and Citibank Korea will work hand-in-hand with their expertise in global payment services as well as licensing agreements.
First, Yanolja will bolster its competitiveness in the global market by tapping into the worldwide network of Citigroup, a banking giant with a global presence. Yanolja currently offers cloud-based hotel operating services to over 30,000 clients in 170 countries, and it plans to ink more licensing deals and advance into new markets through the strategic partnership with Citibank.
As for Citibank Korea, it will build on Yanolja's market insights and big data to offer global payment services specialized for the hospitality industry.
“We look forward to introducing our innovative technologies that lead the industry to more clients in various countries through Citibank's extensive global network,” Yanolja CEO Lee Su-jin said at the signing ceremony. “Yanolja will continue to pursue active collaboration with key partners in the industry to strengthen our global competitiveness and take a leap forward to become a leading company of the hospitality industry.”
Citibank Korea's CEO Yoo Myung-soon commented, “Through the MOU signed with the unicorn travel company, Citibank will do its best to support Yanolja in becoming a leader in not only the domestic but also the overseas travel industry.”
Yoo added that Citibank will leverage its global network to serve as a stepping stone for Korean companies to make inroads into global markets.
Founded in 2005 as a local booking and leisure business, Yanolja has expanded into a powerhouse of the global hospitality industry. Since 2017, Yanolja has developed and strengthened its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, a cloud-based computing system managing reservations and operations for hotels, leisure facilities and restaurants, becoming the top provider of cloud-based hospitality IT services in the global market.
Now the firm offers its SaaS services in over 60 languages to more than 30,000 firms in 170 countries, and it is expanding its client pool to embrace not only advanced markets such as the U.S. and Europe, but also emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Africa, India and Sri Lanka.
With over 200 years of history, Citibank boasts its global network that spans more than 160 countries. Since opening its first branch in Korea in 1967, Citibank Korea has served as a partner to domestic enterprises for them to gain insights into overseas markets and to build global networks.