Mobile Carriers’ PASS and Kakao Pay Authentication in Wide Use
The National Assembly is planning to amend the Digital Signature Act to discard the public certificate that has been used for 21 years for online banking, housing subscription, electronic bidding, and so on. Although the certificate contributed to e-commerce promotion in its early days, more and more users began to complain about its inconvenience in terms of issuance and management.
Once the certificate is discarded, mobile personal authentication, document issuance and administrative services become possible. In addition, IT companies can accelerate their efforts for innovative techniques such as mobile authentication, biometric authentication and blockchain-based authentication. According to market research firms, the global mobile biometric authentication market is expected to grow from US$2.6 billion to US$34.6 billion from 2015 to this year.
In South Korea, three major mobile carriers’ PASS and Kakao’s Kakao Pay authentication are likely to take the lead. The number of issued PASS certificates amounted to 10.2 million in January this year and is estimated to reach 18 million at the end of this year. The service already has more than 28 million subscribers and is closely linked to most financial institutions and commerce service providers. The mobile carriers are planning to launch a PASS-based mobile driving license confirmation service next month.
The number of Kakao Pay authentication users topped 10 million early this month. At present, more than 100 institutions are using the service, which can be easily used via the KakaoTalk messenger even without a separate program.