South Korea digital wallets to bag 46% market share by 2030

But credit card spending is about 10 times higher than debit spending online.

Digital wallets are expected to take a larger share of South Korea’s online payments by 2030, surpassing credit cards, which dominated the market in 2025

Credit cards remained the leading payment method in South Korea in 2025, accounting for 49% of e-commerce transaction value and 53% of point-of-sale (POS) spending.

Digital wallets were the second-largest payment method, making up 35% of e-commerce spending and 24% of POS transactions in 2025, according to Worldpay’s Global Payments Report 2026.

Popular domestic wallet providers include Kakao Pay, Naver Pay, Samsung Wallet and Toss.

Digital wallets’ share of e-commerce transaction value is forecast to rise to 46% by 2030, whilst the share held by credit cards is expected to fall to 40%. At POS, digital wallets are forecast to increase to 31%, whilst credit cards are expected to decline to 48% in four years.

Account-to-account payments accounted for 7% of e-commerce spending in 2025 and are forecast to remain at that level in 2030. Debit cards represented 5% of online payments, with their share expected to fall to 4%.

At physical points of sale, debit cards accounted for 14% of spending in 2025 and are forecast to decline to 12% by 2030. 

Cash represented 6% of POS transaction value in 2025 and is expected to fall to 5% by 2030. South Korea had the second-lowest rate of cash use in Asia-Pacific in 2025, behind China.

South Korea’s e-commerce payments market was valued at $180b in 2025 and is forecast to reach $236b by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate of 6%.

The POS market is expected to grow more slowly, from $313b to $344b over the same period, a compound annual growth rate of 2%.

Domestic card schemes accounted for 97% of South Korea’s card market in 2024, whilst international schemes made up 3%. 

Major domestic providers include BC Card, Hana, Hyundai, KB Kookmin, Lotte, NH, Samsung, Shinhan and Woori. International schemes include American Express, China UnionPay, JCB, Mastercard and Visa.

Credit cards are used more heavily than debit cards in South Korea, with credit card spending about three times higher at POS and about 10 times higher online.

Tax rules that allow workers to deduct certain credit card spending from taxable income have supported their use.