K Plus banking app usage soars amid Covid-19 crisis
The number of Thais using mobile banking is the world's highest, accounting for 68.1 per cent of internet users nationwide per month, and K Plus proved to be Thailand's most popular mobile banking app, according to a study.
Kasikornbank (KBank) said that transactions exceeded 14.5 billion in 2020, growing 71 per cent amid the Covid-19 crisis.
At the end of 2020, there were around 14.4 million K Plus users.
KBank said there were as many as 5 million K Plus users per day.
The study found that six features on K Plus were popular among customers and met the prevailing lifestyle of people preferring to go cashless, avoid leaving the house and routinely shop online.
These features include K+ market for online shopping, Wealth Plus for automated investment portfolio arrangement, international funds transfer, K Point accumulation, top-up via K Plus and K Plus QR code. KBank said it aims to increase the number of K Plus customers to 17.5 million by the end of 2021.
KBank president Patchara Samalapa said that KBank aims to make K Plus the "digital lifestyle ecosystem".
This means that users will not only use K Plus features, but K Plus will be embedded in select financially relevant ecosystems to serve customers anywhere, anytime.
As of today, K Plus services are available in most applications that customers use in their daily life, the bank said.
Customers do not need to switch between the apps when they want to make payments or request a loan, KBank said.
K Plus has so far teamed up with more than 50 leading brands, including apps like Grab and Line, e-commerce platforms Lazada and Shopee, large retailers such as Central JD FinTech and JD Central, energy businesses like PTTOR, Blue Connect, and financial institutions, namely CU Nex initiated by Chulalongkorn University, the bank said.
According to We Are Social and Hootsuite data, Thailand ranked No. 1 in the world for mobile banking users in 2020, representing 68.1 per cent of internet users nationwide per month.
Moreover, Thais' online shopping via smartphone was second highest in the world, accounting for 74 per cent of internet users during the same period, while the amount of time spent on the internet via mobile phone ranked third, or an average of 5 hours and 4 minutes per day.
