SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Leading South Korean mobile commerce company Ticket Monster (“TMON”) today announced that NHN Entertainment (“NHNE”), Korea’s premiere gaming and entertainment provider, has completed a US$40 million (KRW 47.5 billion) investment in the company. The partnership will build on TMON and NHNE’s complementary synergies and expertise across core business areas that include mobile shopping, and payment and online transaction solutions.
At a time when cutting-edge technologies such as big data, IoT, GPS and advanced payment systems rapidly shape the shopping industry, the collaboration between NHNE and TMON is expected to generate unique opportunities that play to the tailwinds of Korea’s transitioning shopping sector.
The two companies also signed an MOU to form a strategic partnership in which NHNE will actively promote its convenience payment solution PAYCO via TMON. The two companies will also research new ways to further innovate how technology and data can be applied to the entire shopping process, from placing an order to payment and shipping.
NHNE CEO Woo-jin Jung said, “TMON’s corporate DNA of making quick market assessments and putting innovation into motion – coupled with the mobile commerce market’s continuous growth is the foundation of our partnership. Together, we will have a strategic, long-term relationship that leverages on the expertise and core businesses of both companies.”
TMON CEO Daniel Shin said, “TMON will live up to NHNE’s faith in our potential for growth and innovation. With NHN Entertainment’s unmatched expertise in IT infrastructure management, we will revolutionize TMON’s commerce platform to ultimately offer customers the best shopping experience.”
TMON, backed by leading investors KKR and Anchor Equity Partners, has aggressively expanded its business after TMON management and their investment partners acquired a controlling stake of the company from Groupon in April 2015. TMON posted 40% half-on-half growth in total transaction value in the second half of 2015, and achieved a record KRW280 billion in total transaction value in December. This attracted NHNE as a new, high-caliber investor for TMON. NHNE’s investment valued TMON at US$1.5 billion.
ABOUT TMON
Ticket Monster Inc. was founded in 2010 and is one of the leading e-commerce companies in Korea today. In 2015, 80% of TMON’s transactions were completed on mobile devices and its customer base continued to expand into multiple age segments. The company operates in three key verticals - Goods, Local and Travel - and offers over 100,000 SKUs through partnerships with approximately 91,000 merchants.
ABOUT NHNE
NHN Entertainment is a leading Korean IT company which started its business as a game company called HANGAME in 1999. Based on its experience and know-how in IT/service management and techniques, it expanded its business area continuously and currently its main businesses can be categorized as Cloud, Fin-Tech (cross-border e-commerce, payment), Entertainment (game, webtoon, music, MCN) and Advertisement.