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[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] LG Pay has disappeared into history. It has continued some services with financial companies, but all services will be terminated in July.
According to the banking sector, Shinhan Bank plans to suspend Shinhan LG Pay service from July 31 this year. Shinhan Bank is the only commercial bank that has provided deposit and withdrawal services through bank accounts to LG Pay.
Credit card companies have also stopped or are about to end LG Pay support. Since Samsung Card terminated its online payment service in August 2022, KB Kookmin Card also suspended LG Pay's wireless magnetic communication (WMC) payment service in KB Pay in December of the same year. Subsequently, linked cards have continued to shrink, with Shinhan Card terminating touch payment services for LG Electronics smartphones in March last year.
LG Pay even sought to make inroads into overseas markets (the U.S.) starting with NFC payments in 2019, but its presence sharply declined when LG Electronics lost its platform when it withdrew from its mobile phone business in 2021.
South Korea's simple payment market is dominated by Samsung Pay based on Samsung Electronics' smartphones, platform companies Kakao Pay and Naver Pay. According to various surveys, Samsung Pay occupies more than 80% of the market share offline, and Kakao Pay and Naver Pay occupy more than 50% online and are expanding their territory. In addition, Apple Pay was introduced in Korea in March last year, and Apple Pay secured a significant market share among iPhone users.
LG Electronics' smartphone market share, which can use LG Pay, is estimated to be less than 1% as of 2024. According to market research firm Strategy Analytics (SA), LG Electronics' smartphone market share fell 10.9%p from 13.2% in 2020 to 2.3% in 2021. Since then, the market share has not been aggregated.
Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
