Hello, this is Alan Shin, Kakao Pay's CEO. I'd like to thank the analysts and fund managers for joining the company's fourth quarter fiscal year 2022 earnings release. Today, I'd like to begin with the key metrics for the Q4 2022, including the TPV, consolidated operating revenue and expense, P&L and key performance. After which, I'll talk about the company's strategies for 2023. First, the key TPV performance. Annual TPV for 2022 recorded KRW 118 trillion, a 19% increase year-on-year. Revenue TPV grew faster than the total TPV at 26%, accounting for 29% of total TPV at KRW 34 trillion. Consolidated revenue posted KRW 521.7 billion, which is an year-on-year increase of 14%. In particular, payment service revenue grew 27% year-on-year.
EBITDA for year 2022 continues on a deficit path, recording negative KRW 22.4 billion due to the impact of subsidiary losses. The year's net income recorded a surplus of KRW 27.5 billion, thanks to an increase in financial income from our cash holdings. An overview of our business performance. As of end of 2022, the company recorded 39.44 million registered users, a 5% increase from 2021, while monthly active users increased 7% to hit 23.02 million persons. Transaction per user recorded 101, a YoY increase of 7%, while monthly transaction amount per user posted KRW 447,000, showing higher growth than the transaction per user metric.
As for the number of merchants, an important metric to measure growth in the payment business, the number grew 29% year-on-year to reach 1.88 million. Next, Aiden, our CFO, will brief you on the Q4 total payment volume.
[Foreign Language]
Hello, I'm Aidan, the CFO. In Q4, the total payment volume of the TPV grew 17% year-on-year and 1% quarter-on-quarter to record KRW 30.9 trillion, the latter 1% being the result of a fire at the Pangyo IDC. During the second half, total TPV crossed the KRW 60 trillion mark. Payment and finance grew 18% respectively, while other services such as money transfer, 17%. Revenue TPV took up 28% of total TPV. This quarter's payment TPV was similar to that of the previous quarter due to growth being lower than our goal because of the Pangyo IDC fire.
However, all areas, including online and offline payment, cross-border payment, and daily payment, recorded a double-digit growth YoY, showing potential for further expansion of the payment market. However, finance TPV decreased by two digits QoQ due to the effects of the abrupt interest rate hike on the credit loan market, but the trend is on an increase YoY basis. In 2023, Kakao Pay will continue to provide services that are more convenient and beneficial for users and drive up our TPV growth. The company will attain the level of convenience and universality that are best in the industry in the payment market, and diversify its financial products intermediary service, contributing to the revenue TPV growth. The Q4 revenue was down 3.6% YoY and 13% QoQ to record KRW 122.9 billion.
Payment revenue increased in all areas, including online, offline, cross-border, and daily services, recording 14.3% YoY and 4.4% QoQ. In finance, revenue dropped by 52.3% YoY and 58.0% QoQ due to Kakao Pay Securities changing its accounting method for its derivatives valuation of foreign currency assets and the decrease in executed loans. Regarding the loans, supply of credit loan has overall fallen due to the abrupt interest rate hike and capping of the total loan volume of the financial institutions and capital adequacy ratio related issues and other restrictions, and they have led to an across-the-board decrease in the supply of credit loans.
Kakao Pay Securities, regarding its overseas stock brokerage services, has seen an FX loss due to the rate fluctuations of its dollar assets and also changes the accounting method of derivatives trading related to its FX hedging activities. In other services, with the December implementation of the free service on money transfer to my account, revenue decreased 14.5% QoQ, but card intermediary revenue posted a 0.5% increase year-on-year. The Q4 operating expenses were down 7.1% YoY and 3.9% QoQ at KRW 145.1 billion. Commissions were impacted by an upward trend in card payments, while labor costs decreased 28% YoY and 5% QoQ. Marketing expenses increased 29% QoQ due to year-end events and offline promotions for merchants in Korea and abroad.
Other expenses decreased QoQ due to the effects of the Kakao Pay Securities FX loss on its dollar assets and also the accounting method change for its FX hedging derivatives valuation in relation to its overseas stock brokerage. The FX loss was hedged similar to the expense, and thus, the impact on the income was limited.
[Foreign Language]. 자회사 손실 영향으로 0개월 기준의 영업적자가 지속되었으나, 보유현금 운용으로 금융수익이 증가한 영향과 그동안 미래 과세소득에 대한 불확실성으로 인해 인식하지 않고 있던 이연법인세 자산을 이번 분기에 인식하게 되면서 법인세 수익이 발생하여 4분기 당기순이익은 KRW 34.1 billion의 흑자를 기록했습니다.
The Q4 consolidated operating loss was KRW 22.3 billion, EBITDA - 15.7 billion, and net income KRW 34.1 billion. The consolidated operating loss continued as a result of subsidiary losses. However, the company recorded an increase in financial profit from financial income from its cash holdings, as well as an increase in the tax income by recognizing deferred tax assets this quarter, which had not been recognized previously due to uncertainties regarding future taxable income. Thus, the Q4 net income posted KRW 34.1 billion.
[Foreign Language]. 사분기 별도 기준 매출액은 전년 동기 대비 구점오 퍼센트 증가, 직전 분기 대비 일 퍼센트 감소한 천이백십억 원을 기록했습니다. 결제 매출은 IDC 센터 화재 영향으로 십월, 십일월 매출이 연간 계획보다 감소했으나, 십이월부터 매출이 회복되며 직전 분기 대비 사점사 퍼센트 증가했습니다. 대출 중개 매출은 시장 영향으로 직전 분기 대비 두 자릿수 감소하여 별도 기준 매출액은 직전 분기 대비 감소했습니다. 사분기 별도 기준 영업이익은 BEP를 기록했으며, 이십이년 연간 별도 영업이익률은 육점구 퍼센트입니다. 다음으로 사분기 주요 성과에 대해 백승준 사업협의체 총괄 리더가 이어서 설명해 주시겠습니다.
Fourth quarter standalone revenue recorded KRW 121.0 billion, which is a decrease of 9.5% YoY and 1% QoQ. Due to the data center fire, payment revenue in October and November fell short of our yearly forecast. However, December saw revenue recovery, posting a 4.4% growth QoQ. Market circumstances led loan brokerage revenue to drop by two digits compared to the previous quarter. Standalone revenue also decreased QoQ. Fourth quarter standalone operating profit reached BEP with 2022 standalone operating profit margin being 6.9%. Next, Jason, Head of Business, will give you a briefing on the key performance for the fourth quarter.
[Foreign language]. 안녕하세요. 사업총괄리더 백승준입니다. Q4 월간 활성 유저 수는 YoY 7% 증가하며 23,020,000 명을 기록했습니다. 유저당 연 환산 거래 건수는 직전 분기와 유사한 101 건을 기록했으며, 유저당 월 거래 금액은 KRW 447,000입니다.
Hello, I'm Jason, Head of Business. Q4 MAU was up 7% YoY at 23.02 million persons. Transaction per user was 101, which is similar to the previous quarter, while monthly transaction amount per user was KRW 447,000.
[Foreign language] Q4부터 거래 외에 대출 관리 서비스 등 부가 서비스를 이용하는 유저도 액티브 유저에 포함하면서 3개 이상 서비스를 사용하는 유저 비중은 전체 유저의 77%까지 증가했습니다. 결제에서의 유저 리텐션율 또한 2022년 말 기준 평균 86%를 보이며, Kakao Pay는 유저가 활발히 서비스를 사용하고 있는 플랫폼임을 입증하고 있습니다.
From Q4, Kakao Pay started including users of additional services, such as loan management, in the number of active users, in addition to those using the conventional services, thereby leading to the proportion of users using three or more services to hike to 77% of total users. In payments, user retention rate reported an average of 86% as end of 2022, attesting to Kakao Pay being a platform with proactive users.
[Foreign language] 카카오페이는 이용자들이 보다 체계적으로 다양한 자산 내역을 조회할 수 있도록 자산관리 서비스 영역을 부동산과 가상자산까지 확장했습니다. 자산 비중이 높은 부동산 자산을 자산관리 영역에 추가함으로써 유저의 부동산 및 대출 관련 데이터를 기반으로 편리하고 선제적인 종합자산관리 서비스를 제공할 수 있게 되었습니다. 가상자산은 유저의 중요한 자산 포트폴리오로 자리매김하고 있지만, 거래소별로 흩어져 있는 유저의 가상자산을 한 번에 조회할 수 있는 대표적인 플랫폼은 그동안 없었습니다. 카카오페이는 국내 최초로 국내 오대 가상자산 거래소의 시세 정보를 조회할 수 있게 하였고, 사대 거래소의 가상자산을 카카오페이에 한 번에 연결함으로써 유저의 전체 가상자산을 일목요연하게 파악할 수 있는 기능을 제공합니다. 종합적인 자산관리 플랫폼으로서 카카오페이 자산관리 서비스 기능은 더욱 강화될 예정입니다.
To allow users to more systematically view their various asset details, Kakao Pay expanded its asset management service to include real estate and crypto assets. By adding real estate, which tends to take up a high proportion among the asset classes to the company's asset management service, Kakao Pay is now able to utilize the real estate and loan related data of our users to provide a comprehensive service that's more convenient and preemptive. Although crypto assets have become an important part of users' asset portfolio, there was no major platform where a user could view all of his or her crypto assets that tend to be scattered across various exchanges.
Kakao Pay, for the first time in Korea, has gained access to the trading information of Korea's top five exchanges and has linked in one go crypto assets of four exchanges to Kakao Pay, thereby allowing users to view all of their crypto assets at a single glance. As a comprehensive asset management platform, the company will continue to strengthen its asset management service features. Let me now move on to our performance in cross-border payment. During 2022, cross-border payment TPV greatly increased in areas such as duty-free shops, department stores, and in Japan, in addition to the conventional merchants. Cross-border payment TPV doesn't constitute a large part of the total TPV, but we're expecting a significant growth in 2023 since both inbound and outbound foreign travel are gradually increasing while Kakao Pay's on and offline cross-border payment coverage is expanding.
The company is now increasing the number of global offline merchants in Japan, Macau, Singapore, and in France. In 2023, we plan to launch our service in new markets and increase the number of merchants. We will also enhance convenience for cross-border payment users. In fact, Kakao Pay is the first foreign cross-border easy payment service provider that is allowed in China. With China's travel ban lifting, we're hopeful that Korean Kakao Pay users using offline easy payment in China will increase their revenue contribution. During Q3, Kakao Pay Securities started its investment content service and during this quarter, launched stock discussion chat rooms where users can share information about a stock. It also started its new notification service, allowing users to immediately check news regarding a stock of interest.
With these new convenient services that boost interest and excitement in stocks, all matrices of Kakao Pay Securities in Q4, such as the number of cross-border stock transactions, monthly average trade, and the NTS activity level, are all on the rise. In addition, Kakao Pay Securities started in January 2023, new services with gamification features. Many users are showing their interest and the daily number of participants is on the rise. Users, having enjoyed the service, are voluntarily sharing it with their friends, driving up the number of new users as well as the NTS activity level of existing subscribers. In 2023, Kakao Pay Securities plans to enhance user access to stock trading service and to sophisticate the service to make investment easier, convenient, and a part of everyday life. Next, Alan will go through the company's ESG activities and strategies for 2023, and then round up today's earnings release.
[Foreign Language]
Hello once again. I'm Alan, the CEO. Kakao Pay, ever since establishing its ESG committee last May, has implemented ESG activities that match the company's business. It has provided free subscription to natural disaster insurance for small businesses in Seoul City through the Kakao Pay platform and planned a financial education program for small scale self-help enterprises, thereby promoting sustainable growth together with the local communities. The ESG report will be published during the first half of 2023 to show our broader stakeholders how the company continues to fulfill its responsibilities and obligations as a sustainable company. Let me talk a bit about Kakao Pay's 2023 strategy. In 2022, Kakao Pay's revenue didn't grow as much as market expectations, and profit didn't improve as fast as Kakao Pay had intended.
The economic downturn and the negative opinion of the company and several external audits just after the IPO, the rapidly changing macroeconomy, and the Q4 data center fire all had an impact. We don't want to make excuses for these circumstances. In fact, such results are being used as an opportunity for not just myself, but for the entire Kakao Pay crew to internally reflect upon the essence of our business and our innovation potential. In 2023, Kakao Pay, as an everyday financial platform and with the aim of making users confidently say, "Yes, Kakao Pay," in the broader financial circumstances, will firstly improve user convenience, and secondly, give more real monetary benefit to the users by providing more convenient and useful asset management instrument services that promote financially rewarding lives. Furthermore, Kakao Pay will show its stakeholders much improved profitability and growth by exploring profit-generating and new business opportunities.
In payment, user benefits will be diversified and the number of merchants increased across venues. Cross-border payment increased especially in China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. In finance, loan products will be diversified, direct and indirect investment services such as equity and fund trading strengthened. An insurance comparison service sophisticated by preemptively responding to regulatory improvements. These are some new business opportunities that are expected to diversify Kakao Pay's revenue pipeline. For example, Kakao Pay's unique advertisement business using two channels, Kakao, excuse me, Talk Pay and Pay App, and its data selling business using the KCSS. Also internal cash holdings will be used to find promising companies with the potential to forge business synergy with Kakao, thereby promoting inorganic growth.
Based on our experience of 2022, during which we strengthened the basics of our services, Kakao Pay's entire crew would exert our best to add innovation to our fortified fundamentals to drive more meaningful growth during this year. Thank you very much.
[Foreign Language]
Now Q&A session will begin. Please press star one, that is star and one, if you have any questions. Questions will be taken according to the order you have pressed star and number one. For cancellation, please press star two, that is star and two on your phone. The first question will be presented by John Yu from Citi. Please go ahead with your question.
[Foreign Language].
I have two questions. The first question relates to the advertising business. I know that you'll be implementing some new advertising businesses, so I'd like to know the timeline for the new businesses and also what kind of form will it take? If it's going to be mainly a display, then can you also tell us where you would like to use the display advertisements? The second question relates to your loan business and your projections for this area. How do you view the growth circumstances and the regulatory environment and also the competition environment and what's Kakao Pay's response to these circumstances?
I'm Alan, I'm going to be answering your question about the advertising business. The first part of business, advertising business we'll be doing will be using the Kakao Bizboard DA. We started to expose some of our accounts starting from September. This was a pilot test advertisement. The second type of advertising business will be our actual own DA. In fact, we will be using this kind of display in the transfer confirm banners. We'll be using this kind of advertising in some of our internal own accounts. We will be combining that with our data services, and therefore we'll be able to promote it as-A advertising product. We did a pilot in December, and we've had very good reaction from the advertisers.
In fact, the revenue from this type of advertising has outrun the revenue from the Kakao Bizboard advertising that I had talked about previously. I think we'll be able to combine this very well into a product. The third type of advertising business we're thinking about is actually the native advertising, and so I won't be able to give you details at this moment in time. It's a service where we'll be using our traffic building services that are very customized to our platform, and so we'll be able to use that to build upon our advertising business. For now, we have some candidates in place, and we are expecting it to become a very high value-added advertising business. It's going to start full-fledged beginning with the second quarter.
The fourth type of advertising is the direct advertising related to our various financial products. So we'll be allocating the various advertising products according to some of the areas in our financial services. At the moment, we are selectively using some of this method in some of our banners, but we will be systemizing it, and we'll be able to be able to put it in the market as a new type of an advertising product. So based on these kind of new advertising businesses that we have in the pipeline, and also based on the lessons learned from the pilot testing that we had done last year, we will be able to build upon our advertising business this year, and thereby bring up Kakao Pay's profitability overall.
This is Jason, and I'll answer your question about the loan referral service. According to the loan behavioral index from the BOK, in 2023, the household loan market will witness a variety of different challenges, for example, the interest rate hike and the regulatory strengthening regarding the household debt. We will see a slowdown in the growth in the market. In the first quarter of 2023, many NBFIs, for example, the savings banks and credit card companies and mutual finance co-ops, will also witness an increase of the interest rate burden due to the interest rate hike, and thereby we believe that the credit risk index is going to rise.
Because the uncertainties regarding the economy home and abroad is going to continue, I think that the borrowed burden due to the interest rate hike and the slowdown of the growth will continue to grow, and loan screening will be strengthened in order to better manage the loan soundness. I think overall, the loan business of many financial institutions is going to shrink. In the case of the NBFIs, due to the interest rate hike and the issues related to asset soundness, we will see a slowdown of the household debt or household loan growth rate for a little while longer. The supply side challenges are going to exert some influence on Kakao Pay's loan referral business.
However, regarding the household, and mortgage loans, I think the regulatory environment is going to ease somewhat going forward. Commensurate to this kind of situation, Kakao Pay is also preparing to launch new services. Regarding the competition environment, we know that a few new competitors since the end of 2022 are partnering with the credit loan companies and have started intermediary services, but the performance, as we know, seems to be low as yet. We believe that these kind of regulatory circumstances and the competition environment will impact our company somewhat, but we do believe that there are market opportunities ahead. For example, in May 2023, a refinancing platform is going to be launched.
The users who are burdened by the high interest rate will want to refinance their loans to a lower interest rate loans. We believe that these needs are going to grow, and thereby that allows us to reap new opportunities rather than just compete in the existing market. Let me talk a little bit about our projections and prospects for the loan service in 2023. We have basically three strategies. The first is to go beyond our core loan business of the credit loans. We are thinking of diversifying our product pipeline to include, for example, the secured car insurance or asset insurance, and also insurance, excuse me, loans for the lower income families and asset loans, and also personal recovery loans.
We're diversifying our pipeline. Also based on this kind of diversification, we will be fortifying our customer experience and thereby, actually enhance the loan execution. We are also looking into developing and adopting new technologies to enable electronic documentation and also private certification. Also as new services, we are looking into the feasibility of mortgage loans as well as, also financing. We will also be coming up with some products in to enhance the customers' purview of convenience.
The next question will be presented by Dongwoo Kim from Kyobo Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
[Foreign Language]
Thank you for allowing me to ask a question. You had foreseen that in the payment market, the growth will be on a downturn in 2023. What does the Kakao Pay think its new growth driver will be under these circumstances in order to foster the growth? Another question is, you said that you'll be diversifying the credit products, what do you think is Kakao's competitive advantage when it comes to credit intermediary services? In the year 2022, we have focused on strengthening our fundamentals of our services, and in 2023, we will be focusing on attaining significant growth based on the fortified fundamentals. This pertains to all areas of our business from payment to finance and to the various new services.
First of all, regarding the payment, we had as a result of the data center fire in October, we didn't really see a growth. It was actually a downturn, but really we were able to respond quickly. After that, every month, we were able to attain a 10% or more than 10% growth. We were able to offset all the downturns that we had experienced. In particular, we did very well, and we hit the top record in the month of December. We have been also communicating very closely with our customers and the users. Not only KakaoTalk, but we know that there are many other companies who are partnering with wallets outside of Korea.
Anyway, we have been able to make inroads into the payments. We have been taking on board long tail wallets as well. Regarding the overseas cross-border payments, we have, as we have been doing until now, we will continue to move forward in the cross-border payment. In this area, we are actually witnessing the easing of inbound and outbound travels. We believe that there are going to be growth in the cross-border payment. Other competitors are of course, also focusing in Japan and Southeast Asia, but on top of these areas, KakaoPay, beginning from about February or March, we will be entering into the mainland China's market.
In the payment, we will be able to gain access to all of the different venues, and I think we will be the only foreign wallet that will be allowed to do so. This will be a very important discriminating factor. Let me now go on to the finance sector. As you know, the loan referral market has shrunk somewhat, but Kakao Pay, through our market management, will continue to enhance our market status. This year we'll be seeing our product diversification, and also we'll also be strengthening our collaboration with the internet banks. We will be able to gain more competitiveness in terms of our services and products. In investment, we believe that it's going to be like the dark horse of this year.
Since fourth quarter last year, we had launched various different services, gained a lot of good response from our users, our activity index is greatly enhanced. For information, when it comes to the stock service MAU for January, it increased to about 2 million persons, the transaction amount and also the market share have greatly increased. As of end of January, we have seen the growth rate of the share of more than 100%. We will, based upon these kind of trends, will continue to see a good performance as we have done since the first quarter. Regarding insurance also, there is a lot of discussion about regulatory reform. Until now, we have used the subsidiaries to operate a comparison model.
We're going to sophisticate this as soon as possible, and we will also be able to come up with a variety of different insurance intermediary services that are being allowed. Commensurate to the regulatory reform, we will be able to ensure that they are actually realized into performance. On top of these new services that I talked about, the two platforms where Kakao Pay service is providing, so through KakaoTalk and Kakao Pay, we will be using these two channels to connect and unify the customer or user experience more closely. We will also be using the traffic-based advertising business and foster it as much as we can. We also will be using external resources to enhance the capacity and also expand our business.
Recently, the economic downturn and the interest rate hike are leading to many companies or potential M&A companies to go through a lot of problems. The valuation has decreased for these companies somewhat. Based on our capital capacities and financing capacities, I think we'll be able to look for very promising investment opportunities going forward. Regarding the credit loans, we have faced a variety of different challenges. For example, the DSR regulation and also interest rate hike. There might be some limitations to how much we can grow in the market. But within the banks and the MBFIs, we believe that there are differences in the markets that are being provided and the markets that the customers want.
Within the market coverage matrix, we will sophisticate the connection between what's being provided by the financial institutions and what the customer's needs are. We will also be promoting additional contracting with the financial institutions and trying to expand our connectivity with these institutions.
The next question will be presented by Sinyoung Park from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead with your question.
[Foreign Language]. 두 번째로는 이제 그 마지막 슬라이드에서 하이라이트 하신 것처럼 이제 그 Inorganic growth에 대한 부분 좀 질문을 드리고 싶은데요. 작년 말에 저희가 기사로 접했던 LOCA Mobility 관련해서 업데이트가 있었는지 궁금하고요. 그 M&A에 대해서 전반적인 전력이라든지 아니면 기준 priority에 대해서도 말씀 주시면은, 큰 도움이 될 것 같습니다. 감사합니다.
Hello, my name is Sinyoung Park from Goldman Sachs. First of all, my question is about whether you can provide a guidance regarding the TPV and the revenue as you had done last year. Another question is about your marketing plans. Last year, it seems that the marketing expenses didn't grow as much had one would expect, considering your strategic MGF activities. Going forward this year regarding the financial services, I know that you'll be coming up with a variety of new businesses. I would assume that you would have to do a lot of marketing and promotion. In this regard, what proportion of the revenue do you think your marketing expenses will take up? Can you provide some guidance on the marketing plans?
Another question is that, in the last slide, you mentioned inorganic growth. At the end of last year, you did talk about, the possibility of acquiring LOCA Mobility . Can you give us an update? Also in regard to any, potential, M&As, what are your strategies? What are your criteria for, acquiring a company? What are your on priorities? This is, these were my questions.
의원님 질문 감사드립니다. Head of Finance. Guidance에 대해서는 제가 설명드리도록 하겠습니다.
Hello, my name is Aiden, and, the CFO will answer your question about the guidance.
카카오페이는 이천이십삼년에도 지난해 대비 두 자릿수 수익의 의미 있는 성장률 추세를 이어갈 것으로 예상하고 있습니다. 연간 가이던스 중 TPV는 YoY 십오에서 이십 퍼센트 성장을, 매출액은 YoY 이십에서 삼십 퍼센트 성장을 예상하고 있습니다.
Kakao Pay in 2023 will continue in its growth path over two digits compared to last year. If you look at the annual guidance, the TPV YoY, we are expecting a 15%-20% growth, and for revenue, 20%-30% growth YoY.
2023년 guidance를 좀 더 사업별로 나눠서 설명드리면 결제와 금융서비스, 기타 서비스로 나눠서 살펴보겠습니다. 특히 결제 서비스가 여전히 가장 큰 비중을 차지할 것으로 보이며, 오프라인과 크로스보더 결제가 2023년 결제 사업 성장의 중추적인 역할을 아직도 할 것으로 기대하고 있습니다.
Regarding the 2023 guidance, let me separate it into payment, financial service and other services. First of all, for the payment service, it's going to take up the most, the biggest proportion so far, and offline and cross-border payment in 2023 will play a core role in our growth in the payment sector.
금융을 포함한 기타 서비스는 이십이년 하반기부터 본격화하고 있는 카드 중개 매출, 새롭게 준비하고 있는 광고 사업 등 신규 사업 매출액이 증가세를 나타낼 것으로 예상하고 있습니다.
Regarding other services which would include money transfer, we have seen the revenues coming from the card intermediary services that we have started in full-fledged in the second half of last year. We're also going to be witnessing revenue in the new services, for example, in the advertising business that we are preparing at the moment.
매출에 대해서 간략히 설명드렸고, 영업이익은 대부분 아직도 금융서비스가 one, two년 미만 신규 서비스 영역이기 때문에 변동성을 좀 높게 가져가면서 구체적인 가이던스를 제시하기보다는 좀 유연하게 비용 효율을 높이고 성장성과 동시에 수익성을 도모하는 데 집중할 계획입니다.
Regarding our operating profit for 2023, well, actually, when it comes to the financial services, they are only about one or two years old. They're quite new, it's going to be a bit difficult to come up with some specific guidance in this sector. However, I can say that in 2023, in all of the areas, we will be enhancing our cost effectiveness, our growth and also thereby, enhance the profitability.
마지막으로 2023년의 전체적인 전략 방향성을 말씀드리면, 2023년도 저희는 inflation, 금리 인상, 주식시장 약세 등 매크로 상황이 여전히 쉽지 않고, 결제 사업과 금융서비스 전반의 규제 환경 역시 녹록하지 않다고 보고 있습니다.
Let me now give an overview of our strategy and direction for 2023. We believe that the circumstances are not going to be very easy. We have the inflation in 2023, the interest rate hike and also a bear stock market. The macro circumstances are quite challenging. Also in the payment and financial services as well, the circumstances are quite challenging, especially the regulatory circumstances.
그럼에도 불구하고 Kakao Pay 서비스만이 차별화 요소를 만들어가고, 서비스 완결성을 높여가며, 각 서비스별로 명확한 명분과 목표를 세우고
However, despite the challenging circumstances, Kakao Pay is going to come up with some differentiating factors in our services and also perfect the level of services that we provide. We will ensure that we have the clear rationale and clear goals for each of our services, and that's going to be, implementing those goals will be an important strategy for 2023. Last but not least, I would just like to say that we're not able to meet after the first guidance revision in 2022. We have seen some very challenging circumstances in the market, and in, for example, Q4, the fire also had a negative impact. In 2023, based on our lessons learned, we will ensure that we actually attain the guidance that we have set.
[Foreign Language].
This is Jason, head of business. I'll be answering your question about the marketing. In 2023, according to our business plan, the marketing expense is expected to take up more or less 10% of the revenue. In 2023, the global economic downturn is expected to continue, and the Korean economy is also going to grow at a low pace. We believe that the financial and circumstances of our users is going to shrink somewhat, we are going to take on a differentiated accessibility for the Kakao Pay. By using our, this kind of characteristic, we will be coming up with a variety of different quality finance related content.
For example, we'll be coming up with services like Pay Like News and also Muji Handy Investment News Bits. We believe that in 2023, we will be able to see our users attain financial growth, and we'll be focusing on this kind of content marketing. The second thing I'd like to say is that we will be using the PFM data, and we'll be able to provide a variety of different offerings to our users. Based on the PFM, we will be able to allow our users to easily access various recommendation algorithms for a variety of different financial services. We will be focusing on the PFM baseline.
[Foreign Language]
The third strategy that I'd like to talk about is that we will be evening out our marketing expense across all of our three major services of loan, insurance, and investment. In 2022, we had focused on the marketing for loans that come under financial services, but in 2023, we will be evening out our marketing activity across investment and insurance as well. To go more specifically into the loan service, until now we have focused on the conversion rate and the traffic and also on the outside advertising expense. From this year we will be decreasing the outside media and focusing more on the internal traffic and enhance our efficiency in this area. Another thing is that insurance, well, in 2022, we were focused on services that would bring in the traffic.
From this year onwards, we will be launching services that would directly contribute to the revenue in growth and also, we'll be spending some marketing expenses to this end. Regarding investment, we will focus on marketing activities in order to enhance the deposit and also, to come up with a variety of different services, to vitalize cross-border stock trading. In conclusion, our finance marketing of Kakao Pay will focus on the sophistication of the so-called full polling scenario, where we'll be using our advantage as an accessible platform and making it effective and efficient as possible. Hello. I am Eddie, Head of Strategy, and I'll be answering your question regarding the inorganic growth.
You asked a question about LOCA Mobility and a variety of different some of the other strategic investment opportunities, and we are actually reviewing these various opportunities. However, regarding the case that you asked about, we have not been able to come up with a concrete conclusion as yet. If there are any changes going forward, we will make sure to let you know through our disclosure. Regarding some of the criteria regarding our M&A, Kakao Pay as a financial platform is looking into strengthening continuously our commercial and technological capacity. We will be looking into investment opportunities into the companies that have these capabilities and the technologies.
To be more specific regarding payment and finance and across the board of Kakao Pay's business, we will be looking into some of the potential M&As in Korea and abroad that can really foster our growth and our profitability. In the payment sector, we will be looking into these, the payment size and also from the customer's perspective, we will be looking into the possibility of gaining an entry into more fine-tuned market that we need to supplement. From the technological perspective, we will also be looking into some potential M&As that can provide us cost efficiency across the value chain by the use of next generation payment solutions.
In finance, we will be looking into some of the companies who'll be able to expand our transaction amount across the business areas of insurance, securities and loans. Also, one of our goal is to find an investment opportunity that would allow us to internalize the upstream and downstream value chains. Due to time constraints, we'll be taking the last question.
The last question will be presented by Kwang Myung Jung from DB Financial Investment. Please go ahead with your question.
[Foreign language].
I have a question about payment. In 2022, you did see some growth in the online sector, but not as much, and the growth seems to be slowing down. It seems that the growth in the offline sector and also the cross-border payment was not as high as expected. Now we are going past the COVID-19, we can expect more cross-border payments. What are your projections for the potential growth in the offline sector and also the cross-border payment, for 2023?
[Foreign language]. 사업총괄 백승준입니다. 질문 주신 결제 관련해서 말씀을 드리면, 4분기 오프라인 결제 TPV도 QoQ로 성장을 했어야 되는데 갑작스러운 Pangyo IDC Center 화재로 영향이 좀 있었습니다. 이제 월별로 보면 꾸준히 회복해서 December에는 최고 실적을 기록했고, 해외 결제는 그동안 COVID-19로 인한 출입국 및 여행 수요 감소에 따라서 본격적인 성장이 이루어지지 못했습니다. 2023년에는 포스트 코로나 및 출입국 활성화에 따른 해외 결제 증가를 기대하고 있습니다.
The fourth quarter offline payment TPV should have grown QOQ, we were impacted by the sudden Pangyo IDC fire. However, if you look on a monthly basis, you could see that there has been a continuous recovery. In December, we really came up with the top record. In cross-border payments, there has been a decrease in travel due to the COVID-19, we have not been able to see a full-fledged growth. In 2023, we will be going over COVID-19, and we are expecting more international travel and also therefore ensuing cross-border payments.
[Foreign language]. 인바운드의 경우에는 2022년은 중국 봉쇄 영향이 큰 한 해였던 것 같습니다. Hangzhou Asian Games을 기점으로 풀릴 것으로 기대했지만, Asian Games이 연기되면서 봉쇄가 지속되었고 성과가 기대치에 미치지 못했습니다. 2023년 1월까지, 여행 비자 발급 중단이라든가 이런 정책 기조 변화를 살펴봐야 하겠지만, 면세점과 백화점 등 해외 관광객을 겨냥한 핵심 쇼핑 장소에서 Kakao Pay를 통해 Alipay+ 결제가 가능한 만큼 정책 완화 시 보다 의미 있는 성장이 기대됩니다.
In the case of inbound travel in 2022, we had a huge impact due to the lockdown in China. We had expected it to ease on the occasion of Hangzhou Asian Games, but that was also postponed, and so the lockdown continued. We were not able to reach the performance of that we had wanted. As of January 2023, the short term travel visas for the Chinese have stopped being issued. We do have to see how the policy changes evolve over time. We believe that in duty free shops and also in department stores, as well as the core shopping areas that focus on foreign tourists, we'll see a very significant growth with the Kakao Pay being able to partner with Alipay+.
[Foreign language]. 아웃바운드 오프라인의 경우에 2023년에 Pandemic이 거의 종료가 돼가면서 해외여행이 본격적으로 회복될 것으로 기대하고 있습니다. 카카오페이는 해외 결제사 최초로 가장 진입 장벽이 높은 중국에 진출했으며, Alipay+ 협력을 통해 공내, 중국 내의 다양한 가맹점에서 사용될 수 있도록 해외 거래처를 지속적으로 확장할 예정입니다. 이에 따라 올해 중 출입국 정책이 완화되면 파급력이 클 것으로 예상합니다. 2023년 9월 중국 Hangzhou Asian Games 시점을 본격적으로 중국 결제도 활성화될 것으로 기대하고 있습니다.
Turning to the outbound offline payment section. 2023, if the pandemic comes to a close and foreign travel, international travel, really takes off, then we will be able to see a good recovery. Kakao Pay is the first company to be able to enter the Chinese market, which is really difficult to enter. With the partnership with the Alipay+, we will be able to continuously expand the merchants where Kakao Pay can be used within China. Within this year, if the international travel, immigration policies ease, then I think that will have a huge impact. With the Asian Games taking place in China in September and October 2023, we believe that payment in China is also going to really grow.
추가로 마카오, 싱가폴, 일본 등 이미 서비스 중인 국가도 Pandemic 전 한국 관광객이 즐겨 찾는 주요 국가들이기 때문에 해외 결제액 성장과 회복을 기대하고 있습니다.
In addition, even in the countries where Kakao Pay is already being serviced, like Macau, Singapore, and Japan, Well, they were the countries that many Korean tourists like to visit. We believe in these areas also, the cross-border payment will grow and really recover.
[Foreign language]. 사분기 카카오페이 전체 가맹점 수는 백팔십칠만 개로 전체 가맹점의 사십에서 오십 퍼센트가 국내 가맹점이며, 오십에서 육십 퍼센트가 Alipay와 연계된 해외 가맹점입니다. Alipay 관련 국내 가맹점으로 카카오페이 국내 가맹점 중 약 육분의 일에 해당하며, 주로 편의점, 면세점, 백화점 등이고, 그 향후 GS25, 신세계백화점, 현대면세점 등 신규 가맹점을 확대할 예정이 있습니다.
As of fourth quarter, Kakao Pay's entire number of merchants reached 1.87 million. Against the total, about 40%-50% are domestic merchants, and 50%-60% are overseas merchants that are linked with Alipay. Actually, Alipay partnered domestic merchants take up about one-sixth of all domestic merchants for the Kakao Pay. It's usually mostly used in convenience stores and DFSs and department stores. We are hoping to expand and increase the number of new merchants, for example, in GS25, the convenience store chain, and the Shinsegae Department Store and Hyundai DFS.
[Foreign language]. 네. 오늘 Kakao Pay 사분기 실적 발표 세션은 여기서 마치도록 하겠습니다. 오늘 행사에 참석해 주신 분들 모두 감사드립니다. 추가로 궁금한 사항이 있으시면 언제든지 Kakao Pay IR team으로 연락 주십시오. 다시 한번 감사드립니다.
This brings us to the end of Kakao Pay's fourth quarter 2022 earnings release. I'd like to thank all the participants. If you have any inquiries, please don't hesitate to contact the IR team at any time. Thank you very much.