Lacarra Unveils Payment System Combining Safety, Speed, and Economy
Secure personal information, fast payments, and lowest fees all at once.

Lakara, China's largest offline payment company, announced that it is entering the Korean market.

Lakara, famous for enabling payments without a separate registration process, is an authentic financial payment specialist that has modernized China's payment system by being the first to receive an electronic payment license issued by the People's Bank of China.

Lacara, which is one of the top three companies along with Alipay and Tenpay currently dominating China's mobile payment market, is a high-tech financial services affiliate of the Lenovo Group and operates China's largest OTO transaction network.

While mobile simple payment systems are convenient, there are concerns regarding personal information leaks and financial fraud. This is a particularly sensitive issue in the domestic market, which has already experienced repeated difficulties due to personal information breaches.

Will it bring a breath of fresh air to the Korean cross-border e-commerce market?

One advantage of Lacara is that the expiration date and CVV, which are important payment information used for identity verification, are not stored on the server, so there is less risk of information leakage.

In addition, identity verification is performed instantly through the card-issuing bank without the need for personal account creation or identity authentication, and security and speed are guaranteed as verification and payment are approved simultaneously with a single One-Time Password (OTP). However, for first-time users, two OTP authentications are required.

Lakara’s competitive edge also lies in its service offering the lowest payment fees in the country. This is because it is capable of operating the entire process—from POS terminal manufacturing to the provision of web and mobile payment services—without relying on external technical agencies.

Currently, the volume of overseas payments is increasing explosively due to the active efforts of Korean companies to enter the Chinese market, the Korean Wave phenomenon, and rising domestic brand awareness. Consequently, competition among Chinese electronic payment companies targeting the Korean market is expected to intensify rapidly.

"Chinese companies Alibaba's Alipay and Tencent's Tenpay are already competing in the domestic mobile payment market. The industry views Lacara's entry into the Korean market as highly significant at this juncture," said Director Gong Hae-dong, General Manager of Lacara Korea.

He also stated, “The domestic industry has high expectations ahead of Lacarra’s entry into the Korean market. This is because it is an opportunity to experience Lacarra’s unique, differentiated payment system, which is the culmination of over a decade of know-how. In particular, there are many attractive features, such as security against data leaks, payment speed, and cost-effective fees. This means that users can enjoy a service that aligns with the current Korean sentiment, which is sensitive to personal information leakage issues, with greater peace of mind.”

Alipay stood out in the mobile payment market last year, and Lakara and Tenpay are being watched as the next contenders.

Director Gong Haedong said, “Compared to Alipay, which is currently used by 800 million Chinese people, Lakara, with 100 million subscribers, is small in scale.” "However, the general consensus in the Chinese industry is that the number is not very meaningful because most Lakara consumers use the service without going through the registration process," he said.

In addition, they stated, “Most Lacara subscribers are characterized by high purchasing power, as they met the strict Chinese credit card issuance standards around the time online payments began. This is a reason why Korean stores would welcome Lacara’s entry into the Korean market. We hope that the emergence of Lacara’s high-spending cross-border consumers will contribute to amplifying the positive momentum of the Korea-China FTA.”