So far, Tic:Toc has a market share of about 0.5 per cent of loans issued each month, roughly on par with the share of flows going to foreign banks such as Citi or HSBC.

Tic:Toc, which has settled more than $1.5 billion in loans since launching in 2017, has developed technology to automate compliance with responsible lending laws, allowing quick loan approvals.

With Tic Toc, the company is expected to jump directly into competition with Kakao Talk, whose subscribers recently reached 42 million. SK Planet, which has 500 billion won ...