K Plus dreams of 100 million users

K Plus dreams of 100 million users

Mobile app to evolve with open platform

Mr Patchara (second right), Mr Somkid (second left) and KBank president Kattiya Indaravijaya (centre) launch the new version of K Plus.
Mr Patchara (second right), Mr Somkid (second left) and KBank president Kattiya Indaravijaya (centre) launch the new version of K Plus.

Kasikornbank (KBank), the country's largest mobile banking provider, has set an ambitious goal to increase its mobile banking users to 100 million by branching out into the international market.

K Plus, KBank's mobile banking app, will be developed into an open platform, said Somkid Jiranantarat, chairman of Kasikorn Business Technology Group (KBTG), the technology subsidiary of KBank.

To meet the goal, the bank is open to business partners -- both local and overseas finance and non-finance firms -- joining its platform, he said. Initial foreign partners could be in the regional market, Mr Somkid said.

"I hope to see 100 million K Plus users in several years," he said. "But KBank has not set a time frame. It depends on our product features and platform build-up."

K Plus users number 9.4 million, up from 7.3 million in 2017 and 4.6 million in the preceding year. Cumulative transactions via the mobile banking app reached 3.63 billion for the first nine months this year, up from 3.05 billion in 2017 and 1.65 billion the previous year.

KBank yesterday rolled out new K Plus features under upgraded artificial intelligence (AI) adoption through Kasikorn Artificial Driven Experience (KADE). Under the new features, users can, for instance, upload their own photos and others' to build up transaction confidence.

The upgraded functions include alert services for both finance and non-finance items, such as lifestyle services, and money withdrawal commands in the mobile banking app.

The app has been upgraded with new features to support online shopping. The bank introduced an e-marketplace feature through K Plus Market, enabling money debit and reward points for goods and service payments.

Mr Somkid said the bank is paying more attention to security systems and is using QR codes for personal verification. The system has been upgraded to let users access K Plus via WiFi without a time limit, up from a 90-day limit earlier.

With AI development, K Plus can gather specific data on customers in the next phase, and the app will respond to user requirements for both financial and non-financial transactions.

There are several features being tested out in KBTG's lab, such as facial recognition, voice command and robo-adviser, which are expected to be adopted next year.

KBTG also plans to have 200 AI team members by the end of 2019, up from 60.

In the meantime, KBank president Patchara Samalapa said the bank is also paying more attention to security systems and capacity to prepare for a higher numbers of users and transactions in the future.

K Plus's transactions peak at 4,000 per second. The bank aims to raise the limit to 10,000 transactions this month and to 50,000 transactions by next year.

Total transactions via K Plus number 125 million per month. The bulk are fund transfers, money top-ups and payments. Lifestyle transactions are about 500,000 per month, representing less than 1% of total transactions.

Mr Patchara said the bank expects to increase the lifestyle transaction ratio to 5-10% within one year after the upgraded K Plus functions are launched.

The bank also aims to expand new customer accounts to 20 million in the next three years from 15 million now.

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