Citcon expands global footprint to South Korea and Japan

By Leandra Monteiro

Citcon, Inc. a mobile wallet payment provider enabling global commerce at scale, announced that it has expanded its global footprint to encompass South Korea and Japan. Merchants using Citcon’s global payments gateway can now transact with consumers in these markets using all local payment methods, including more than 30 locally issued credit and debit cards and eight popular digital wallets, all through a single payments gateway.

Retail eCommerce and digital sales in Asia Pacific totalled nearly $2.99 trillion in 2021. Japan and Korea are the 4th and 5th largest markets for digital sales and e-commerce transactions in the world, and the 2nd and 3rd largest in the region ranking only behind global leader, China. Together Japan and South Korea account for more digital commerce than Germany, France and India, combined.1

“We are enabling merchants to enter global markets where e-commerce is expanding rapidly, yet market participation requires a localized payments solution,” said Chuck Huang, Founder and CEO of Citcon. “With on the ground presence in South Korea and Japan, we can help merchants of all types expand their e-commerce offerings into these fast-growing markets, enabling them to securely transact in local currencies and native languages preferred by shoppers in these regions through one integrated technology stack.”

Citcon’s global payments solution simplifies the complex challenge of integrating and managing multiple payment methodologies to enable cross-border commerce. Through this platform, local transactions, even for those using global credit cards, are routed through local acquirers – in South Korea and Japan – significantly reducing processing fees for merchants and increasing acceptance rates for consumers. 3D Secure 2.0 standards have been integrated to provide security and fraud protection for purchases made with global credit cards.

Merchants using the Citcon platform can now accept payments from 30 global and regional credit and debit cards including Visa, MasterCard, AMEX, JCB, DinersClub,, BC Card, Lotte, Hyundai, KB, Samsung, Samsung App Card Pay, Shinhan, Woori, Hana, Citibank, Post Office, Kwangju, L.Pay, Kakaobank, MG, Suhyup, Jeonbuk, Shinhyup, Jeju, KDB, Hana, KB Able, K Bank, Mirae Asset, and KEB.

The Citcon platform also enables the use of each country’s most popular digital wallets. In Japan, merchants can process transactions using PayPay, RakutenPay, LinePay, AliPay and UnionPay. In South Korea, Citcon enables direct bank transfer, as well as payments through the most popular digital wallets including Toss, KakaoPay, NaverPay and Payco.

“Enabling cross border commerce requires not only an understanding of the market dynamics and transaction preferences of consumers but also the customer experience insight to ensure a smooth checkout process,” explained Wei Jiang, Citcon COO and President. “Our customer experience pathway delivers a checkout experience whereby customers are seamlessly served the appropriate payment window or app interface, built-in authentication layers ensure transaction fidelity, and quick approval and order confirmation provide confidence to both customer and merchant that their purchase has been received safely and payment has been processed.”