Stock trading to be available in KakaoTalk app within this year

Kakao Pay Securities co-CEOs Kim Dae-hong, left, and Lee Seung-hyo speak during an online press conference on Tuesday. Courtesy of Kakao Pay Securities

By Anna J. Park

Kakao Pay Securities, a brokerage subsidiary of Kakao, aims to introduce a stock trading function in the KakaoTalk messenger app by the end of this year. Customers of the internet-only securities firm will also be able to send actual stocks as gifts to their KakaoTalk friends sometime within the second quarter of this year.

These stock trading and gifting features are two of the innovative stock trading services that Kakao Pay Securities plans to offer its customers this year, revealed at the firm's online press conference on Tuesday, marking its second anniversary.

Co-CEOs Kim Dae-hong and Lee Seung-hyo stressed that the company hopes to nurture a new, convenient investment culture by creating synergy with the KakaoTalk platform, the top mobile messenger app in Korea.

“The accessibility to stock investments will be so much more enhanced, as customers will be able to check stock prices and place simple stock orders through KakaoTalk starting in the second half of this year,” Kim said during the press conference.

“Kakao Pay Securities' main competitor is not any particular brokerage firms or industries, but the current convoluted and complicated investment platform and culture,” the CEO added, vowing to create a completely new investment culture based on innovative platform technologies.

Lee stressed that the unique strengths of KakaoTalk will be reflected in the firm's mobile trading system, differentiating the service from other more traditional securities firms.

The company explained that customers' ages are diversified and spread almost evenly, as the service is closely linked with the country's most popular messenger app used by almost everyone in Korea. The firm explained that about 28 percent of the securities firm's current customers are in their 20s, followed by those in their 30s at 27 percent, 40s at 25 percent and the remaining 20 percent of customers in their 50s or older.

When asked about the company's target market share in the brokerage industry, the company chiefs said that they will prioritize innovative investment experiences and the firm's new vision for customers, rather than focusing on heated competition for now.

“Kakao Pay Securities has been built on a vision of creating a whole new different investment culture, closely linking daily lives and investment through the power of technology,” Kim said.

“While we will enhance our unique strengths as a techfin brokerage firm, we will also expand our wholesale businesses, aiming to achieve goals of both pursuing innovation as well as profitability.”