Naver and Toss Accelerate Facial Recognition Payments... Will the Era of Widespread Adoption Begin?

Both Hands Free, Payments by Face
Naver and Toss Expand Use Cases and Benefits
"Convenience Comes First, But Trust Is Key to Mainstream Adoption"

Facial recognition payments are taking another step closer to becoming a routine payment method. This trend is being driven by Naver and Toss, which have not only expanded their offline merchant networks but have also introduced services that encourage repeated use. However, ensuring recognition accuracy, protection against forgery and tampering, and building trust in personal data protection remain key challenges for widespread adoption.

According to the financial industry on August 7, the number of Naver Pay’s offline terminals, “Npay Connect,” nationwide surpassed 100,000 affiliated merchants by the end of the first half of this year. Npay Connect supports “FaceSign,” a facial recognition payment service, alongside card, QR, and NFC payment methods.

Naver Pay is working to further expand the reach of Npay Connect through partnerships with payment network operators. By collaborating with value-added network (VAN) companies such as NICE Information & Telecommunication, KICC, and KIS Information & Communication, Naver Pay distributes the terminals and has made it possible to install Npay Connect without having to replace existing point-of-sale (POS) systems.

Support measures are also being implemented to lower adoption barriers for small business owners. The company assists in replacing outdated payment terminals with Npay Connect and will reimburse in-person Naver Pay Money and point payment fees for micro and small merchants until the end of 2026. The strategy is not only to increase the number of locations where facial recognition payment is accepted but also to transform the terminals into a digital infrastructure for small businesses by integrating various functions like reviews, coupons, and store management.

Rival company Viva Republica (Toss) is also expanding its offline merchant network with its facial recognition payment service, “FacePay.” In partnership with TogetherS, a POS solution provider for the retail sector, Toss has introduced FacePay at over 5,000 small and medium-sized supermarkets nationwide and is expanding the FacePay infrastructure to member companies of the Korea Franchise Association.

In addition, Toss is strengthening incentives for the repeated use of facial recognition payment. The “Toss One Shinhan Card,” launched jointly with Shinhan Card, offers up to 20 percent rewards for payments made through FacePay at cafes, restaurants, and convenience stores. Furthermore, Toss Mobile, Toss’s telecommunications subsidiary, has introduced affordable mobile plans that bundle discounts on phone bills and FacePay payment coupons.

Convenience Is Not Enough: The Key to Wider Adoption Is Trust in Security

As Naver and Toss expand their facial recognition payment services across terminals, cards, and telco services to build a “payment ecosystem,” there are growing predictions that facial recognition payment could be established as a mainstream payment method. Facial data can be registered relatively easily with just a smartphone camera, and it is simpler to link with existing terminals, making it more convenient than iris or fingerprint authentication. The payment application process can be skipped even when both hands are occupied.

However, for facial recognition payment to spread, there must be trust that facial information is used safely, not just that the method is convenient. According to a Bank of Korea survey last year, about half of users willing to adopt biometric payment methods such as facial or fingerprint authentication cited “security safety” as the most important reason. This shows that users consider safety to be even more important than the convenience of being able to pay quickly without a physical payment method.

No Kyung-A, a research fellow at Toss Insight, commented, “The method of authenticating payments using only facial recognition, without a smartphone or physical card, is spreading in China, the United States, and has entered the commercialization stage in Korea, primarily driven by Naver and Toss. However, for this to become a mainstream alternative to cash and card payments, technological trust in secure transactions must precede any promise of convenience.” She added, “Building that trust requires precise differentiation between real and similar faces, detection of forgery or tampering, and robust personal data protection systems. Financial institutions need to repeatedly verify performance and safety in various environments, while regulatory authorities must clarify legal standards and data processing principles so that technical reliability translates into actual user trust.”

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