Good morning and good evening. Thank you all for joining the conference call for the Kakao Pay earnings results. This conference will start with a presentation followed by a Q&A session. If you have a question, please press star and one on your phone during the Q&A. Now we will begin the presentation on Kakao Pay's first quarter of fiscal year 2026 earnings results.
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Good afternoon. This is Allen, CEO of Kakao Pay. Thank you all for joining our company's first quarter 2026 earnings call.
2026 [Non-English content] 2026 [Non-English content].
I will begin with key metrics including TPV, consolidated operating revenue and expense, P&L, followed by key business highlights for Q1 of 2026. First on key metrics for the first quarter of 2026.
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Q1 2026 TPV was up 15% year-over-year, reaching beyond KRW 50 trillion for the first time in a quarter, reporting KRW 50.9 trillion. Revenue TPV was also up 15% year-on-year to KRW 14.6 trillion, achieving growth in both in terms of volume and quality. Underpinned by TPV growth, Q1 consolidated revenue increased 42% year-on-year to KRW 300.3 billion. While payment, financial services, and platform reported more than a double-digit growth across the board, we saw steep growth of 82% year-on-year from financial services in particular, which now accounts for 49% of total revenue. Operating profit in Q1 was KRW 32.2 billion, yet again rewriting quarterly record.
EBITDA was KRW 40.8 billion and net profit came in at KRW 34.7 billion , driving OP margin of 10.7% and net income margin of 11.6%, both posting a double-digit profit rate at the same time, which is a noteworthy result.
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Next is on business performance metrics. Daily active user of Kakao Pay increased 8% year-on-year to 6.69 million users, sustaining a robust uptrend. Share against monthly active user was 27.8%, 1.2 percentage points higher versus last year on the back of expanded offline payment and MyData-based asset management services, attesting to a more diversified user-facing and stronger stickiness. Average transaction per user in Q1 increased 35% year-over-year to 80 transactions. With activated brokerage services and wider acceptance and stronger user benefit, frequency of use across all service domains increased sharply, widening the user base across the board. Q1 ARPU thus increased 37% year-over-year to KRW 12,464 on the back of expanded contribution per user following evenly spread growth across all businesses.
Next, CFO Aiden will brief you on TPV and financial performance.
[Non-English content] TPV[Non-English content] 15% [Non-English content] . Revenue TPV [Non-English content] 15% [Non-English content] 14.6[Non-English content] TPV [Non-English content] 29% [Non-English content].
[Non-English content] TPV [Non-English content] .
Hi, this is Aiden on the financials. Q1 TPV increased 15% year-over-year, reporting KRW 50.7 trillion. Revenue TPV also increased 15% year-over-year to KRW 14.6 trillion, taking 29% share against the total TPV as we build on economy of scale and profitability at the same time. Payment and money transfer continued to drive double-digit growth underpinning the total TPV growth.
[Non-English content] non-captive [Non-English content] 13% [Non-English content] 50% [Non-English content] 20% [Non-English content] 2[Non-English content] 4.4[Non-English content] 79 [Non-English content] 15% [Non-English content] 2[Non-English content] 5,122[Non-English content] .
In terms of the breakdown, payment service growth was 21% year-over-year, supported by evenly spread growth across all segments. Online payment was powered by data-driven merchant joint marketing and seasonal promotions for New Year holidays, back to school season, and vacation period, which drove non-captive TPV, accompanying 13% year-over-year growth. Offline payments saw 50% year-on-year growth through overwhelming user benefit offerings and Samsung Wallet integration, leading to coverage expansion. Cross border payments saw 20% year-on-year growth on stronger demand for domestic travel and targeted promotions against strategic merchants. Loan service TPV sustained two consecutive quarters of quarter-over-quarter growth on a product lineup expansion and execution improvement through web-in-app integration despite stringent lending regulations by the government. Stock trading volume was up 4.4x year-over-year, surpassing KRW 79 trillion .
Such activation in trading led to a rise in money transferred to my own account, thus driving money transfer TPV by 15% versus last year. Kakao Pay money balance reported KRW 2.51 trillion as of end of Q1.
[Non-English content] 42% [Non-English content] 3,003 [Non-English content] non-captive [Non-English content] 13% [Non-English content] 1,384 [Non-English content] 82% [Non-English content] 1,459[Non-English content] 49% [Non-English content] 137%, [Non-English content] 55% [Non-English content] DB [Non-English content] 78% [Non-English content].
[Non-English content] DA [Non-English content] 67% [Non-English content].
Next, on operating revenue. Q1 revenue was up 42% year-over-year, recording KRW 300.3 billion, breaking the KRW 300 billion mark for the first time on a quarterly basis. All of the business lines, including payment, financial services, and platforms, saw steep double-digit growth year-over-year, sustaining a robust scale expansion. In terms of the breakdown, firstly, digital payment was up 13% year on year to KRW 138.4 billion, fueled by online non-captive growth. Digital finance revenue was up 82% year-over-year, reaching KRW 145.9 billion thanks to salient growth from investment and insurance, and now taking up 49% of total revenue. Investment service revenue reported 137% year-over-year growth against the surge in domestic trading volume coupled with weak won impact and excluding rising FX rate impact, the growth rate will adjust to 95%.
Insurance service revenue saw 78% year-over-year growth on the back of solid demand for core products, including overseas travel insurance and handset breakage insurance, as well as insurance DB sales. Loan service saw year-over-year decline following stronger regulation, but through product diversification and web integration, we were able to sustain two consecutive quarters of quarter-over-quarter revenue uptrend, cementing the recovery trajectory. Platform service reported 67% year-over-year growth driven by activation of Display Advertising advertisement and comparison service for telecom rate plans.
[Non-English content] 29%, [Non-English content] 8% [Non-English content] 2,680 [Non-English content] 24% [Non-English content] 29% [Non-English content] 224 [Non-English content] . [Non-English content] 7% [Non-English content] 21% [Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] 14% [Non-English content] 119% [Non-English content].
Operating expense in Q1 increased 29% year-over-year and 8% quarter-over-quarter, recording KRW 268 billion. Marketing expense was up 24% year-over-year, impacted by offline expansion and payment coverage and stronger affinity marketing. Due to year-end promotional base effect and strategic controls over cost, it fell 29% versus last quarter, coming in at KRW 22.4 billion. We are maintaining the marketing spend at reasonable levels of 7% against our total revenue. Labor cost was up 21% year-over-year on business expansion and hiring of key talent, while due to operational efficiency gains from AI usage, labor cost fell slightly quarter-over-quarter, displaying a stable and controlled trend. Commissions paid increased 14% year-over-year due to operating expense incurred from MyData and growing infrastructure spend.
However, it is significantly lower than the overall revenue growth, which is a testament to tangible results coming out of margin-focused cost base enhancements. Other operating expense increased 119% year-over-year on recognition of derivative and foreign currency related expenses from financial subsidiaries.
[Non-English content] 322 [Non-English content] 10.7%[Non-English content] . EBITDA [Non-English content] 408 [Non-English content] 13.6% [Non-English content] 347 [Non-English content] 11.6% [Non-English content].
Next is on P&L. Q1 consolidated operating profit came in at KRW 32.2 billion, reaching new highs for the quarter. OP margin was 10.7%, continuing on a robust stepwise growth since the turnaround in Q1 of last year. EBITDA reported KRW 40.8 billion, with margin at 13.6%, and net income was KRW 34.7 billion with net income margin of 11.6%. As you can see, all our profit margin metrics have recorded a double-digit figure, and this actually is a reflection of greater contribution made by our financial entities and stronger earnings capacity of our core businesses. Kakao Pay will continue to optimize its operation to enhance profitability and ramp up its capacity in generating earnings.
[Non-English content] 15% [Non-English content] 1,851 [Non-English content] 37% [Non-English content] 186 [Non-English content] 10%[Non-English content] 12.3% [Non-English content]
Now, briefly on Q1 standalone results. Standalone revenue was up 15% on year to KRW 185.1 billion. Separate basis operating profit was up 37% year-over-year to KRW 18.6 billion, with OP margin at 10%, maintaining a double-digit following last quarter. Net income margin was 12.4%, showing a robust result of double-digit performance for OPM and net income margin, both on a consolidated and standalone basis. Next, I will turn it over to Jason for major first quarter performance highlights.
[Non-English content] 12% [Non-English content] Non-captive [Non-English content] 24%[Non-English content] 63%[Non-English content] Pay [Non-English content] MyData [Non-English content].
Hello, this is Jason. Allow me to walk through our digital payment performance. Underpinned by competitiveness in data, we've upgraded our merchant strategy to speed up growth in scale. Firstly, online payment revenue saw 12% year-over-year growth, with Non-captive segment recording high growth of 24%, expanding online payment mix to 63%. Through solutions that combine Pay's data with MyData, partner companies drove real revenue expansion. Moving forward based on proven data capabilities, we will expand Non-captive partnerships domestically and globally to solidify our market dominance.
[Non-English content] Pay [Non-English content] MyData [Non-English content].
In terms of specific use cases, we used Kakao Pay's proprietary data together with MyData in order to analyze users' complex payment and behavioral patterns and make precise predictions on churn risk for each of the merchants. We built automation systems sending instructions for reward payment in a timely manner when user inactivation is most expected. As a result, target groups retention meaningfully increased versus organically returning users, contributing to user lock-in and higher TPV.
[Non-English content] Loyalty [Non-English content] 36%[Non-English content] lookalike [Non-English content].
We also built a framework based on high quality customer data and through automatic matching of optimal lookalike modeling for each merchant enabled identification of prospects and personalized benefit offerings. We are matching against lookalikes and the peer group of a specific vertical or reverse tracking lookalikes of highly loyal vertical customers. Through such sophisticated efforts, in case of specialized models for subscription services, we saw 36% payment conversion from top tier prospects. Our lookalike modeling is serving as a growth engine across the entire domain, including both on and offline. Next on AI services, I will hand it over to Jeff, Head of Services.
[Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] agentic AI [Non-English content] Pay AI [Non-English content] MyData [Non-English content] 1.0 [Non-English content] ChatGPT for Kakao [Non-English content] MCP [Non-English content] Kanana [Non-English content] agent-to-agent [Non-English content] MCP [Non-English content].
Hello, this is Jeff. Let me talk about AI business, which is Kakao Pay's future growth engine. By scaling up our proprietary AI services and connecting with the external agents, we are solidifying the agentic AI ecosystem. First, we drove expansion of PayAI, which is Pay's own AI services. While we made enhancements to health and benefit AI agent, financial assistant version 1.0, offering coaching for healthy habits and finance powered by MyData, is currently in the workflow pipeline. All of this was implemented as part of our master agent framework, having integrated control across wide-ranging sub-agents. We're targeting public beta by end of Q2 this year. Also, within the Kakao ecosystem, we're carrying out agent-to-agent integration. We recently completed MCP integration with ChatGPT for Kakao, now enabling inquiry for payments and money transfer details inside the chat room.
We are also preparing for agent-to-agent and MCP integration with Kanana, which is Kakao's own model, and will introduce extended services such as agent for integrated statements in the second half of the year.
[Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] .
Externally, we're working towards setting global standard for AI payment as well. As Korea's sole founding member of x402 Foundation, we're leading the effort on establishing a global AI payment protocol. This is a standard for machine payment designed for autonomous payment by the AI agent without human intervention, and will be an opportunity for the company to fortify its tech leadership within the global AI financial ecosystem. By moving ahead of others in such standardization efforts, we will provide frictionless payment environment while broadening our global market influence. Next, I will invite Eddie, who's in charge of operations, to present on the performances of securities and insurance business.
[Non-English content] DB [Non-English content] DB [Non-English content] DB [Non-English content] 61% [Non-English content] DB [Non-English content] 76% [Non-English content] sub-agency [Non-English content] 21% [Non-English content].
Hello, this is Eddie. In terms of quarterly performance and future strategies for our insurance services, to begin with, we've been able to boost insurance revenue stream by driving both database volume growth and quality enhancements. There was growth from both DB volume and pricing. Database generation volume posted 61% year-over-year growth in the first quarter, displaying a robust growth potential in terms of supply. We also expanded the share of high intent prospects in the database, leveraging MyData for insurance coverage analysis, which drove higher partner satisfaction, upon which we were able to increase the unit price by 21%. As a result, revenue increased 76% year-on-year, with the positive feedback effect of rise in both DB distribution volume and the unit price.
For the sub-agency model, after the adoption of standard sales practice, SA's conversion rate was up 2.1x versus previous quarter, clearly a display of its effectiveness. We plan to advance, in phases, support systems for agents, including expanding the consultation team by the first half of the year and data visualization, and eventually introducing AI-powered operating system to maintain sales efficiency improvements.
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Next on brokerage services. Kakao Pay Securities posted a record-high growth in AUM and earnings on the back of strong domestic and overseas equities market. As of Q1 end, AUM was up 208% year-on-year to KRW 13 trillion, and this growth was fueled by actual net inflow of funds, not merely by higher valuation from uptrending stock prices. Net inflow in Q1 was KRW 3.7 trillion, which is quite remarkable as it is equivalent to 76% of last year's annual inflow. Kakao Pay Securities Q1 revenue, thus, was up 124% year-over-year, breaking the KRW 100 billion quarterly mark for the first time, while operating profit recorded KRW 23.6 billion, which is 55% of last year's annual figure. Quarterly trading volume surged 339% year-on-year, reaching KRW 79 trillion on strong market, expanded product lineup and the FX impact.
Number of transactions also increased 206% to 221 million transactions, and active user on a monthly basis was up 143% year-over-year, reaching 1.4 million users.
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On Kakao Pay Insurance. There is clear uptrend in performance powered by solid top line growth. Q1 revenue was up 85% year-over-year to KRW 24.3 billion. Coupled with solid performance from overseas travel insurance, which is our core product, we started seeing revenue contributions from regular premium products driving growth, such as from phone and student insurances. We expect higher share of regular premium products and profitability focused portfolio will further support sustainable business. Gross premium written, hence, for the first quarter, was up 66% year-over-year, with regular premium recording a sharp growth of 157% year-over-year, attesting to a stable earnings base. Kakao Pay Insurance also continues to widen its customer base by introducing new and distinctive product offerings.
Pet insurance is a recent launch, offering industry's lowest premium but maximum coverage. Coupled with strong competitiveness and social feature, the product is winning positive market feedback. Kakao Pay Insurance will continue to roll out innovative user-centric products to enhance accessibility to insurance services and also to fortify sustainable growth levers. Moving on to ESG and upcoming plans, I will invite back Allen for closing.
[Non-English content] S&P Global[Non-English content] Korea [Non-English content] ESG [Non-English content] Yearbook Member[Non-English content] ISS[Non-English content] ESG [Non-English content] Prime [Non-English content] . ESG [Non-English content] industry leader[Non-English content] .
It's Allen again. Kakao Pay has demonstrated its sustainable management capabilities both domestically and on the global stage. For three consecutive years, we made S&P Global's Korea Index, while being selected as the Yearbook Member for three years in a row as the only Fintech company within the financial services sector recognized for its outstanding ESG performance in human capital, ethical management, and sustainable financing, among others. We were also awarded Prime status in ESG evaluation by the biggest global proxy advisory, ISS, and was recognized as the industry leader, winning high ratings across all ESG pillars.
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Moving on to environmental and social contribution efforts. We at Kakao Pay practice inclusive finance through Blind Spot Pay School, helping those with limited access to digital finance. We recruited 50 partner institutions in 2026 to create practical educational opportunities for seniors and ran awareness programs showcasing a documentary titled My Exploration of Blind Spots, featuring digital financial exclusion experienced by senior citizens. For shared growth with small vendors, we significantly increased support to Orae Orae Together Store this year. New store onboarding was up 67% year-over-year, reaching 100 new stores and extending support to brands that mainly operate offline as well. On top of the sales channel, we also extended tailored packages for growth, which includes PR services, training for capacity building and digital transformation solutions, thus supporting small merchants to gain self-sustaining capacity across on- and offline businesses.
[Non-English content] ISO 14001 [Non-English content] ESG [Non-English content].
Lastly, we renewed ISO 14001 certificate, an international standard on environmental management, enhancing relevant processes, and under which we are building sustainable office environment as we respond to challenges of climate change. Kakao Pay, moving ahead, will engage in ESG activities that have organic relevance to our core businesses to fulfill our social responsibilities in our effort towards making our future sustainable.
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We've so far walked through key performance highlights for the quarter. In Q1, we surpassed KRW 300 billion in quarterly revenue, recording a double-digit OP margin, both on a consolidated and separate basis, which is a testament to Kakao Pay's solid earnings capacity. What's more encouraging is on top of the leap that we've made by our financial entities, we can say we've entered the growth trajectory in full swing, where data-driven business models, which we've explored and validated last year, as well as new growth levers, are translating into real numbers. It goes to show that Kakao Pay is now more than a platform, having evolved into a strong financial ecosystem equipped with profitability and scalability.
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We will maintain this overwhelming growth momentum solid during the year using innovation and technology beyond improving user convenience, but also for lifting corporate value. The entire Kakao Pay crew, myself included, will be relentless in creating an environment where users can feel at ease when engaging in daily financial activities. We'll turn this mission into tangible results. Thank you.
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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 the number star one. For cancellation, please press star two, that is star and two on your phone.
[Non-English content] Goldman Sachs [Non-English content] .
The first question will be provided by Sinyoung Park from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead with your question.
[Non-English content] stablecoin [Non-English content] x402 [Non-English content] stablecoin[Non-English content].
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Thank you. This is Sinyoung Park from Goldman Sachs. Would like to ask you two questions. First one relates to your stablecoin initiative. In Korea, the legislative process for stablecoin is being somewhat delayed, but I am sure that this will be a great opportunity for Kakao Pay to further strengthen your market share within the financial services market. You have also talked about your activities and participation into the Global Protocol Initiative of x402 Foundation. Would like to understand as to the update as to how your stablecoin business is currently ongoing, and what will be your key focus area, and how will it connect to the overall wallet ecosystem? Second question relates to basically we have seen a significant contribution from financial services to your top line revenue.
It's actually reached around 40%, fueled by a very steep growth of Kakao Pay Securities. You were able to prove that there was a structural and also qualitative change in the overall revenue structure. Would like to understand as to what you feel is the most optimal mix from a mid to longer term perspective, looking at different businesses such as payments, digital finance and platform. When do you think that you will be able to achieve that most optimal level?
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This is Allen. I will respond to the first question that you asked relating to the stablecoin. We're making preparations with jointly together with other Kakao group companies to develop our stablecoin business. Kakao Pay is deeply involved in the design of the infrastructure and issuance aspect as well, to be led by the consortium, as well as designing the business structure to support the distribution of stablecoin as a discrete distributor and building the technical foundation that is required. Reason why we're involved on the both sides of designing the infrastructure for issuance as well as for the distribution, is to win an overwhelming positioning in the stablecoin market. We're leading the design efforts so that the infrastructure to be developed by our consortium can really support wide ranging, versatile use cases.
This will eventually help companies, including us, to adopt our stablecoin, and will help expand issuance and distribution as well as usage scope of stablecoin.
[Non-English content] wallet-as-a-service[Non-English content].
What I've just explained was from a point of view of how we could actually, you know, enlarge the pie, basically through this effort led by the consortium with regards to the issuance of the stablecoin. From now on, I'm going to talk about the big piece that Kakao Pay will take out of that pie. That's the perspective that I will be highlighting from now on. Under this optimal infrastructure, we are currently building services to empower users to have stablecoin in Kakao Pay's wallet, meaning in the wallets of 40 million users, have them freely send and receive, make payment, and invest in stablecoin with no constraint.
We want to be able to bring convenient use of Stablecoin to be part of Kakao Pay services, which already enjoys top-tier positioning in the financial sector in terms of number of transactions for payment as well as for money transfer. We hope to expand user acceptance while lowering our own cost base and eventually identify new business opportunities, such as Stablecoin wallet-as-a-service and creating feasible business case.
[Non-English content] x402 Global Open Protocol [Non-English content] stablecoin [Non-English content] Kakao Pay [Non-English content] stablecoin [Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] Kakao Pay [Non-English content] Consortium [Non-English content] Kakao Pay [Non-English content] s tablecoin[Non-English content] .
In the opening, I briefly mentioned that we're participating in the x 402 Global Open Protocol initiative. This is one of the ways in which we are trying to naturally bridge the payment demand with our stablecoin ecosystem against the AI backdrop. We're going to make it so that Kakao Pay and our stablecoin become the most critical payment method in the AI ecosystem. Through these efforts, Kakao Pay will not only bring success to the stablecoin consortium, but also will create new growth engine for Kakao Pay itself.
[Non-English content] Pay [Non-English content].
Hi, this is Aiden, responding to your question about our revenue structure. Now, we've been working on our platform strength as a financial platform and have diversified business towards personalized financial service offerings, which drove higher revenue share of digital finance and the platform revenue. Our corporate strategy and direction is now translating into such results, and our thinking is that optimal revenue generation comes from following the business direction rather than fixing a certain revenue mix target in advance.
[Non-English content] fundamental [Non-English content] AI, stablecoin [Non-English content].
Now, also, our service portfolio is highly exposed to market movements or volatilities and regulation, which are quite hard to predict. In payment, digital finance, and platform, we're doing our best to drive growth from each business domain and maximize growth potential based on their business fundamentals. We believe it's important to fend against risk from outside while driving growth of the company at the same time. From a mid to longer term perspective, we want to be able to expand our services and nimbly navigate a fast-changing industry environment with regards to the various different needs of the users, the adoption of AI and stablecoin.
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In summary, based on our strategic direction for non-payment business going forward, we do expect our non-payment business, including the digital finance business, to actually account for more than the majority of our top line revenue. Rather than being fixated on this number as being optimal, we want to be able to respond to the market in an agile and nimble manner and solidify our revenue stream where everyone shares growth across payment, digital finance and platform as we continue to invest in creating our future businesses.
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Next question, please.
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The following question will be presented by Jingu Kim from Kiwoom Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
[Non-English content] AI, Pay AI [Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] 20 26 [Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] 2026[Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] Non-captive [Non-English content] Non-captive [Non-English content] MyData [Non-English content].
Thank you for taking my question. I would like to ask you two questions. First relating to your overall AI service plan. Last year with Pay I, which is your own AI services, you introduced insurance diagnostics, AI, as well as card and payment benefit related AI agent. You've mentioned that you're preparing at this point in the pipeline and asset management and payment related AI agent in 2026. Can you provide some color as to the update of what is taking place at this point? What are the specifics of the action plan with regards to these, the test bed for such agents? If there's anything else that's included in this overall AI plan, please do share that with us. Second question is on your payment business.
We've seen very clear performance improvement on the non-captive side, the online non-captive segment in Q1, despite a somewhat of a depressed commerce market, we see a very steep growth rate. What do you feel is the key driver behind the continuation of such strong growth from the Non-captive segment? It would be helpful if you could also mention the scaling up or the upgrade of the database or data driven analytics using MyData and pay data as well.
[Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] 2026[Non-English content].
Hi, this is Jeff. Responding to your first question on AI. In AI agent for asset management, what we're focusing on building financial assistant version 1.0. It actually goes beyond mere information search. It also provides proactive asset management by monitoring and optimizing financial status of a user in a real-time basis. The key to this has to do with data and the method of implementation. In terms of data, insight is offered based on the user's MyData, which is in fact financial and payment data of the user. In terms of the implementation method, we're using integrated master agent approach under which there are sub-agents for insurance, investment and for instance, combined statements which are all connected, enabling both cost efficiency gains and higher service quality.
AI from global big techs have only limited access to financial data of their user base. We think AI financial assistance of Kakao Pay has a unique edge, and our target date for initial public beta release is end of Q2 of 2026.
[Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] last mile[Non-English content] AI [Non-English content] x 402 [Non-English content] .
Pay AI agent is at the core of agentic payment, responsible for the last mile of money movement in the world of AI age. Let's say a user, after exploring a certain product, decides to make a purchase inside the commerce domain run by the Kanana agent. At that time, Pay AI comes into play, offering the most optimal scenario for user benefit and completes the payment immediately. Even if search is made within Kanana, transaction is closed by Kakao Pay. To this end, we are at this point working towards securing a real-world use case before the end of the year in fiat-based payment by working with key strategic domestic merchants. To incorporate next-generation payment method, including stablecoin, we've joined the x402 project so as to gain technological and regulatory readiness, and are planning on introducing highly well-made services in step with the legislative timeline.
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This is Jason. Responding to your question on our online non-captive performance. Yes, you are correct. Our non-captive online growth was 21% year-over-year Q4 of last year, and in Q1 it was actually higher at 24%. Non-captive mix out of online payment revenue increased meaningfully from 50%- 63%. Despite contractions in the commerce market, growth driver, in my opinion, was strategy behind strengthening the semi-captive market. By selecting key sectors such as delivery, shopping, fashion, air travels, accommodations, we strategically focused on strong strategic coupling, that is, with key merchants who are building their category competitiveness, running marketing, targeting their specific needs as we refined our user engagement. We have basic set of seasonal campaigns and promotions catering to each merchant, and on top we are bringing our own data capabilities.
Using MyData and Pay AI analytics, we analyze 61 complex payment behavioral patterns, select target segments using prediction model, provide optimal benefit to users at the right timing. All of this is based on automated process, which helped build retention. Let's say we have a strategic merchant A. We can detect early on that a heavy user of the app is about to move to a competitor by analyzing Kakao Pay data and offer personalized reward at the right timing based on payment habits and patterns, which will help increase user retention for the merchant. We're also using payment and behavioral data analytics to acquire prospects, as well as retaining high-quality customers. By identifying new customers and delivering personalized benefits, we were able to drive higher payment conversion.
Based on all around data analytics leaning towards activation strategies, we're strengthening collaboration to attain win-win for both the merchant and for Kakao Pay. Through Kakao Pay, merchants can retain and expand their customers efficiently, which led to higher TPV and our market share for Kakao Pay against the merchants. We will continue to broaden this collaborative structure and virtuous flywheel.
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Now due to the time constraint, we will be taking the final question now.
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The last question will be presented by Yoodong Yoon from NH Investment & Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
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Thank you for taking my question. My question relates to your business, your securities business. We've seen a continuous profit growth for your securities entity on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Because of the market tailwind, we think that this would be a good opportunity for you to narrow the gap that you have with your peers or competitors, or to jump up in the ranking. Would like to know as to what strategies you are currently envisioning, and do you also have plans for additional capital raising in order to expand your credit provision business?
[Non-English content] UI, UX [Non-English content] AI [Non-English content].
This is Eddie, responding to your question. Kakao Pay Securities is considered as a top six player in terms of user volume based on the MAU metrics based upon our own criteria. We believe it's important to actively expand user acquisition going forward. Our goal is to narrow the gap with our competitors in terms of the MAU so that we can reach above two million and be top two by the end of the year. To that end, we're working on variety of marketing and branding activities and improving our user interface as well as UX. Also, to drive synergies across the group, basically for Kakao Pay Securities, we're providing stock trading inside the Kakao Bank app channel, so we do look forward to additional user inflow through this channel.
On top of such efforts, by delivering tailored trading experience across user segments from light users to heavy traders, and by using AI to deliver investment-related information, and by growing the community itself, we're looking to narrow the trading volume gap with top-tier securities companies.
[Non-English content] wealth build [Non-English content] UX [Non-English content] AI [Non-English content].
Kakao Pay Securities vision is to give people the experience of making money the right way, the genuine way. Under the goal of lowering the hurdle for everyone, solving information asymmetry, empowering people to invest with comfort and safety, we are focusing on innovating the overall user experience. Focusing our UX capabilities into consumer research and design as well. Under the culture of fostering data-driven experiments, we are optimizing usability of products aligned with needs of different customer segments. In the second half, on top of chart-based ordering, quick ordering, and pro mode revamp, we will bring AI analytics across the entire app. In terms of the business of extending credit on the rise in the domestic stock trading volume, provision of margin loan is, yes, also growing.
Although it is not easy to predict market volatilities, we plan to monitor market trend closely and decide on the need of capital injection, if need be.