South Korean startup WON corporation was recently awarded the first prize in the mobile startup competition “Superstar M’ for its innovative technology and efforts to make online transactions in the country much easier.
This is understandable as Korea has one of the largest online shopping markets in the world. Rates of online sales penetration are the second highest in the world which is not surprising for a country that is so connected. According to a survey by IPSOS, 65% of South Koreans actually prefer buying things online. Despite this, the country is still held back by outdated laws which require the use of systems such as “authentication certificates” and Microsoft’s Active X for online transactions. Using Active X for such activities is not only now considered risky, but also clumsy as the user has to fumble about installing various software just to make a payment.
WON Corporation wants to help consumers move away from this slow and painful process so users can make transactions with ease. Once registered, users can select to pay via the company’s SmartPay app. The transaction appears within the app and the user confirms the payment by entering a six digit password into their smartphone. While remaining secure, the payment process cuts out the need to install unnecessary software and can be done from any browser. WON Corporation partnered up with SK Hana card for the app and since the release in January, has received over 150,00 downloads.
At a recent mobile startup event in Seoul where the company was awarded first place, CEO of WON Corporation Park Jung-chul responded to a question by the judges regarding the security of the service.
“Card companies store the card information and the entire process is encrypted. To review our security, we opened our service after inspection from the Financial Supervisory Service. SmartPay has already completed a service and security review and is perfectly secure.”
“Our platform needs to be able to work together with other businesses so that our services and the transactions made can develop on a larger scale.”
Park says that WON Corporation also has plans to make partnerships with other card companies and enter the market of NFC (near field communication).
“Our service(app) can be changed to NFC and we intend to do this once stores which support it increase. We are not using NFC now not because we can’t, but because the number of stores which support it is currently too low.”
Park expressed his desire for the future of WON Corporation, pointing out that the reason for founding the company was because he wanted to show others his vision and that competition in the IT industry comes from hard work. Park says he is still unsure of whether his company would accept an offer to be acquired by a larger company in the future and even put forward aspirations of an IPO.
“As for whether we would go for an M&A or IPO, it would need to be a decision guided by talking with others in the company.”
Check out WON Corporation’s website here.