Danal Sets New Record with 63% Surge in WeChat Pay Partnered Transactions in H1

On August 5, Danal (064260) announced that its WeChat Pay offline QR payment transaction volume in the first half of this year reached an all-time high, rising 62.7% compared to the same period last year. This growth is attributed to an increase in Chinese tourists visiting Korea and expanded use by domestic merchants.

Danal operates the WeChat Pay offline QR payment service in partnership with Tencent. With this service, Chinese tourists can pay at Danal’s major merchants, including convenience stores, beauty shops, and franchise chains in Korea, simply by using the WeChat app they regularly use—with no additional process required for QR code payments.

The company cited the recovery in Chinese tourist numbers and increased convenience store usage as the main drivers behind the surge in transaction volume during the first half of the year. According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, the number of foreign visitors to Korea in the first half of this year exceeded 10.71 million, up 21.3% compared to the same period last year. Among these, Chinese tourists accounted for 3.21 million—a 27.1% increase over the previous year and the largest proportion among all visitors. During the same period, total card spending by foreigners amounted to 10.0389 trillion won, a 50.8% jump from the previous year.

To maintain this growth momentum, Danal is continuously expanding its network of WeChat Pay QR payment merchants. Recently, the company has signed partnership agreements with unmanned arcade stores, which are rapidly gaining popularity among younger consumers. With the usage of unmanned stores by foreign visitors rising, the company expects the number of locations accepting these payments to keep growing. Danal also plans to extend its payment services beyond shopping to include transportation, healthcare, and wellness, aiming to enhance convenience for foreign residents and travelers in Korea.

Danal’s new businesses targeting foreign tourists have also become firmly established. The foreigner-exclusive prepaid card ‘K.ONDA’, which was launched in July, has improved usability by installing dedicated kiosks in major tourist zones such as Gangnam, Myeong-dong, Euljiro, Seongsu, and Hongdae. The company notes that the card is drawing attention from foreign communities even before arrival in Korea, as it can be used for online shopping, food delivery app orders, transportation card features, and ATM withdrawals—all with a single card.

The tuition payment service for foreign students, operated in partnership with Shinhan Bank, continued its growth as well. Compared with the previous year, WeChat QR payment transactions rose by 81.5% and PayPal payments rose by 133.2%. In particular, the growth rate for WeChat QR payments, mainly used by Chinese students, exceeded 47.3% in 2025.

With the addition of Vietnam’s leading simple payment service, ZaloPay, as a new tuition payment method this year, Danal expects further growth in transaction volume. The company has strengthened its service competitiveness to target Vietnamese students, who represent the second largest foreign student group in Korea after Chinese students. The number of partner universities for tuition payments increased from 30 in 2023 to 94, more than tripling over three years.

A Danal official stated, “Since we preemptively introduced the WeChat Pay service in Korea by cooperating with Tencent in 2015, all of our major services have shown growth in the era of 20 million foreign tourists visiting Korea. We will continue to expand customized payment services so foreign tourists, students, and workers can use their most familiar payment methods here in Korea just as they do in their home countries.”

This performance demonstrates that, driven by the increase in foreign visitors to Korea, Danal’s customized payment services for foreigners—including WeChat Pay payments, prepaid cards, and tuition payment forwarding for international students—are all growing in tandem.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.