PXPay Plus online payment app goes online in South Korea

Taipei, Jan. 7 (CNA) PXPay Plus Co., Ltd., wholly owned by the Taiwanese supermarket chain PX Mart, introduced its online payment app, "PXPay Plus," in South Korea on Tuesday, becoming the first Taiwanese operator to launch a cross-border payment app in the market.

PXPay Plus, which launched the online payment app in Japan in January 2024, made the announcement earlier in the day.

Citing statistics compiled by the Tourism Administration, the company said that since the summer of 2022, the number of Taiwanese traveling to South Korea has risen from about 90,000 per month before the COVID-19 pandemic to 129,325 in October 2024.

Also, the South Korean government announced recently that it will extend the temporary exemption period for Taiwanese tourists in connection with the Korean Electronic Travel Authorization (K-ETA) until Dec. 31, 2025.

This means Taiwanese traveling to South Korea only need to fill in an arrival card to enter the country, increasing their willingness to visit and potentially driving a surge in the use of the online payments in the country, PXPay Plus said in a statement.

The company is the first Taiwanese electronic payment operator to launch an app in South Korea and through cooperation with Taiwan's cross-border payment platform HIVEX, Korean electronic payment platform ZeroPay and cross-border financial technology company ICB, the cross-border payment service is available at more than 1.9 million payment locations, it said.