Kookmin Card has been elated by a record increase in the number of its Hun-Min-Jeong-Um credit cards bearing the name of the Korean alphabet since its first launch in December, 2013. The number of cardholders rose to 1.5 million as of early this month.

The number of the cardholders reached 400,000 as of May, last year, just three months after its introduction, and increased again to top 1 million cardholders in November of last year. 

The credit card company issued its discount credit card, “Kookmin Nuri Card” on July 7, 2014 in addition to the credit card named after the Korean alphabet and the KB Kookmin Kaon Nuri Card to complete its marketing system.  All cards in this system are named after the name of the Korean alphabet in line with its strategy to issue and operate credit cards that are suited to the lifestyles of cardholders.

The credit card company issued the KB Kookmin Kaon Card in May, 2014, an integration-type point accumulation card, and followed it up with a credit card that earns discounts to strengthen its integration type credit card lineup as well as to provide a wider range of credit cards choices to its customers.

The credit card company has been studying the issuance of the credit cards whose names are made with the Korean alphabet which is composed of 24 letters.  Kookmin Card has rolled out this line of cards since 2013 in honor of the creators of the Korean alphabet and the principles behind the development of the Korean letters to complete the credit cards lineup bearing the Korean names made with Hangul.

The main idea of the project was to establish a system with differentiated credit cards, strengthen the competitive power of the credit cards and provide effective communication with customers.

KB Card analyzed the existing credit card system and portfolio to find out their weaknesses, along with the classifications of its customers by age, genders and consumption patterns. The project, in the end, has been able to divide the customers into 10 different class types.

The credit cards brand product system shows the benefits on their cross sides, while the classification is on the diametric sides. The cross sides come in two types, one of integration (2 types) and the other for lifestyles (4 types) under what the company calls the two-track system.

The diametrical sides come in four steps so that the card type can be easily understood by the customers. They are check, general, ollim and platinum.

The credit card company completed the cross sides of its credit cards bearing the names in the Korean alphabet with the issuance of the KB Kookmin Nuri Card and will soon complete the diametrical sides of the credit cards soon. In the case of the check cards, the company has issued discount check credit cards since 2013 aimed at use in the daily lives of its holders bearing the name of KB Kookmin Min Check Card, the KB Kookmin Jeong Check Card for shopping and the KB Kookmin Hun Check Card for education to follow up. In July, 2014, the company issued the Kookmin Um Check Card to complete the credit cards series bearing the Hun-Min-Jeong-Um.

The credit card company issued the Ollim class commodity which was followed by the KB Kookmin Kaon and Nuri Check Card and the platinum card will soon make its appearance.

At the same time, the company plans to study degrees of satisfaction on the part of its card holders and also streamline its old credit cards under its plan to reform its credit card portfolio.

The Korean alphabet brand name credit cards give differentiated benefits to their users based on their lifestyles and the businesses that customers prefer. KB Kookmin Hun Card gives a high discount depending on its holder’s lifestyle and preferred businesses for card usage. For private tutoring schools, a 10 percent discount will be given, leisure and fitness 5 percent, and a 10 percent discount at pharmacies at the maximum. 

KB Kookmin Min Card gives a 10 percent discount on Internet shopping malls, 5 percent at convenient stores, and a 10 percent discount on mobile communication fees. 

KB Kookmin Jeong Card gives a 10 percent discount at Internet shopping malls, home shopping malls, 5 percent at beauty parlors, and a 10 percent discount at department stores and duty free shops. KB Kookmin Um Card gives a 30 percent discount at coffee shops, 5 percent at movies, performances and social commerce and a maximum of 10 percent at golf businesses and KB tours.

Kookmin Card Signs MOU with NHN Entertainment

Kookmin Card and NHN Entertainment signed an MOU to cooperate on businesses related to Fintech, including the development of new Fintech products, and providing the credit card company’s financial settlement on and offline overseas, the two companies said on Feb. 11.

President Kim Duk-soo of Kookmin Card and President Chung Woo-jin of NHN Entertainment signed the agreement whereby KB Card provides financial settlement facilities for the settlement of payments related to the entertainment agency’s deals involving the contents and other transactions in entertainment areas with foreign entertainment agencies and entertainers. The signing took place at NHN Entertainment’s office in Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province, just outside Seoul.

Entertainment industry sources expected that the two signatory firms may be able to promote diverse businesses based on Big Data, with NHN Entertainment having a number of affiliates such as NHN Ticket Link, a ticket sales agent, One Game, an online game platform, and Incruit, an employment agency, while Kookmin Card is one of the largest credit card operators as an affiliate of the KB Financial Group, with a 10 percent market share of the credit card market in Korea, the second largest among credit card operators.

The two partners intend to create a synergy with Big Data and mobile solutions to build a mobile settlement solution. The industry sources said if the databases of the two partners are combined, it would be able secure a great many adults in the country as customers. When NHN Entertainment’s cyber settlement capacity and Kookmin Card’s settlement are used together, they will be the strongest in the settlement market in Korea with its Big Data, the industry sources said. NHN Entertainment has Korea Cyber Payment as its affiliate, which has been in a fight to lead the electronic settlement payment agency service market in Korea. 

Kookmin Card and NHN Entertainment will also be strong in the global settlement market, too, the sources said, with the former taking advantage the latter’s electronics commercial deals with its dealers in such countries as the U.S., China and Japan and enter the global market.

The entertainment company recently had its board approve a plan to increase its capital by 350 billion won, of which 150 billion won will be allocated to the simple settlement sector, signaling a move to Fintech from games, which used to be its main line of operation.

The credit card company has also been looking for a way to expand its operation into the Fintech sector, and it set up an “M-Commerce” team. The company has been seeking a way to use its credit cards in some 100,000 online shopping malls operated by NHN Entertainment, giving discounts to customers that use its card to boost its share in the online global online simple settlement area, with synergy created with NHN Entertainment.