GLN International, the South-Korea based global alternative payments network, is setting its sights on the intra-regional travel market to drive the next phase of growth by leveraging on the national, proprietary QR payments and ATM networks established in Asia.
Spun off from Hana Bank in July 2021, GLN received an estimated KRW 69B (US$56M) investment from Korea’s Hana Bank, KB Digital Platform Fund, Kakaopay, Taiwan’s Taishin International Bank, and Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank in early 2023.
At the time of the investment, GLN said it “plans to use the investment to further strengthen its leading position in the cross-border QR payment and QR cash withdrawal network market by establishing the strategic alliances with banks, payment networks and distributors globally”.
Kenneth Kim, CEO of GLN International, told WiT the GLN services which include cross-border mobile payments, mobile ATM cash withdrawal and digital remittances, are now available in 13 markets – South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Laos, Mongolia, Cambodia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Guam & Saipan, Nepal and the Philippines.
“We are going to roll out in Indonesia and Malaysia next year and that means Asia will be pretty much covered. After that, we will expand our services to other parts of the world.”
Kenneth said that on average each month, GLN processes over 600,000 transactions in cross-border QR payments overseas by Korean travellers.
The demand for a QR code-based payments network was further driven by the pandemic when countries in Asia transitioned from cash payments to the method of QR payment, particularly Thailand which practically went all QR from a largely cash-based society.
Kenneth mentioned that “GLN connected to Thai QR in 2019, but it wasn’t until after the pandemic, it saw transactions soaring. Other markets followed suit.”
“We see travel as a natural segment for cross-border mobile payments and we feel that OTAs would be the platforms with the right users,” Kenneth Kim, CEO of GLN International, told WiT. Kenneth will be speaking at WiT Singapore 2024 (Oct 14 – 16)
In targeting its 13 markets, GLN studied the data of Korean outbound travel trends. “First, we focused on the top 10 destinations in our list. Laos and Mongolia were interesting destinations, and despite there was not much outbound volume there, we went live in these markets. The results show that travellers found these destinations unique, and spent longer, more active time there. Our service usage rates for these countries were as high.”
Korean travellers can access the GLN service through several digital banking & payments apps such as Hana Bank’s Hana 1Q app, Hana Card’s HanaMoney app, Toss app, Kookmin Bank’s KB Star banking app, K Bank app, Daegu bank’s iMBank app as well as GLN’s proprietary light wallet, allowing users to make mobile payments and cash withdrawals simply by scanning a well-established local QR code in a destination country. This list is growing as GLN keeps onboarding new wallets to its network.
Having put that first plank in place – enabling Korean travellers to pay while abroad – it then looked at facilitating the inbound flow to Korea by enabling foreign visitors to pay while in the country. And in its third stage, GLN wants to facilitate multi-lateral cross-border transactions within the Asian region.
“We see travel as a natural segment for cross-border mobile payments and we feel that OTAs would be the platforms with the right users,” said Kenneth.
The biggest key in weaving together GLN QR payment network thus far is compliance and alignment with national regulators, said Kenneth. “QR based payments are at an evolving stage now, so the key is to work together with local regulators regarding compliance and finding that ‘happy medium’ between financial inclusivity and service security.”
The other challenge is educating consumers where or how to pay because “we do not push GLN branding at the merchant site, so there is no GLN decal at cashiers. Our services blend with local brands such as Thai QR or PromptPay or Liquid Pay and our users are savvy enough to learn about them when making payments.”
“The more fragmented the markets are in payments such as in Singapore, the more challenging it is. In markets where there is just one or two payment QR standards like KHQR or QRPh, the easier it is for customers to know how to pay with GLN.”
As GLN has an eye on expanding beyond Asia, Kenneth also acknowledges that other regions, such as the US or Europe, may not have as high QR adoption in payments. “We want to integrate with available local infrastructure, creating interoperability between local payment methods of merchants and those of tourists,” he said.
The 30-year Hana Bank veteran, who has been with GLN since the beginning from the days it was a project at the bank, also told WiT that initially GLN stood for Global Loyalty Network with the idea of it being a platform for digital assets such as loyalty points.
“As time went by, the model didn’t quite fit and so we pivoted to engage the customer base and add other services such as cross-border payments. Our main demographic is the 23 to 38 years old and we are rebranding to Global Life Navigator as a next generation payments platform.”
Note: Kenneth Kim will be speaking at WiT Singapore, October 14-16. Get your tickets now.
