Naver, Kakao, ICT firms vie for certificate market
Internet companies, telecommunication operators and other ICT firms are scrambling to attract more customers to their digital certificate services after the Digital Signature Act was revised to allow private e-signature systems, according to industry officials Sunday.
The country’s authenticated certificate system has long been criticized for its time-consuming and frustrating process because the public certificate requires multiple software downloads to computers.
However, the National Assembly passed the revision bill on May 20 to allow private digital signature systems to compete freely, opening the lucrative e-signature market to private operators.
According to ICT ministry data, Korea’s e-signature market was estimated at 66 billion won ($53 million) as of 2018. Market researcher MarketsandMarkets also predicted the digital signature market could grow to $5.5 billion in 2023, from $1.2 billion in 2018.
Industry officials predict the revised act will breathe new life into the country’s digital signature sector, boosting development of encryption technologies such as biometrics, cloud computing and blockchain.
Kakao has established its presence in the certificate market here with its KakaoPay Certificate service. Since it was introduced in June 2017, the service surpassed 10 million customers this month and more than 100 organizations have adopted the service. The company said its certificate system is superior to others in terms of security as it utilizes the public-key infrastructure (PKI) verification system and blockchain technology.
In addition, the three major mobile carriers — SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus — said Sunday they would work on expanding their certificate system PASS to strengthen their foothold in the digital signature market.
The three telecommunications firms had operated their own mobile certificate systems, but decided to integrate them to PASS in July 2018. There were 14 million subscribers before the integration, and this grew to 28 million in February and is expected to pass 30 million in June.
The PASS certificate service is free while the public certificate charges individuals 4,400 won a year.
“An increasing sentiment of contactless culture has made more people turn to mobile certificates and this also helped our platform grow,” a PASS official said.
To ensure their customers keep using the PASS service, mobile carriers plan to add various convenient services such as a digital driver’s license. Compared with traditional “plastic” driver’s licenses, which show a person’s resident registration number, address and other personal information, the digital driver’s license shows only the driver’s name and photo with a QR code, to prevent potential data leaks.
Naver, the largest portal site operator here, is also accelerating efforts to gain the upper hand in the private certificate sector.
The company has been providing its Naver Bill service since June 2019, enabling users to view various bills and electronic documents from government agencies and financial institutions.
After the Digital Signature Act was revised, Naver announced it would try to make it more part of everyone’s lives by forging partnerships with more organizations such as insurance firms and regional associations.
“At a time when private certificate services and electronic bill services are increasingly used, we will try to offer more convenient and secure services,” a company spokesperson said.