Kakao Pay Reports Increased Q3 Net Loss Due to Payment Delays.

Seoul: Kakao Pay Corp., the online payment arm of South Korean tech company Kakao Corp., announced a widening of its net loss in the third quarter, attributing the increase to significant payment delays by e-commerce platforms earlier in the year. The company revealed that its net loss for the July-September period amounted to 27.5 billion won (US$20 million), a substantial rise from the 8.2 billion won loss recorded in the same period last year.According to Yonhap News Agency, Kakao Pay's third-quarter operating loss was recorded at 7.5 billion won, a slight improvement from the previous year's loss of 9.5 billion won. Meanwhile, the company's sales saw a 17.2 percent increase on-year, reaching 186.2 billion won. The rise in revenue was attributed to strong performances by its securities and insurance subsidiaries. Despite this, the net loss was exacerbated by unforeseen expenses related to the liquidity crisis faced by TMON and WeMakePrice, two major e-commerce platforms.Earlier this year, these platfor ms faced financial difficulties and filed for rehabilitation after failing to make timely payments to their vendors. In response to the situation, Kakao Pay allocated 31.2 billion won to assist its users who had made transactions via Kakao Pay on these platforms, facilitating cancellations and refunds to mitigate the impact on customers.