What's driving every major service to go after travel consumers?
'Book a stay, get a free car—Socar' (Socar)
'Competition heats up… Naver and Kakao join the fray' (Dealsite, 2023/12/19)
'Heading overseas? Try Travellog for flights, Sol Travel for airport lounges, Toss Bank FX accounts + Travellers or Kakao Bank's Dollar Box for currency exchange' (Edaily, 2024/06/27)
Maybe it's because peak travel season is around the corner—but these days you can't scroll anywhere online without bumping into "travel." Banner ads promoting Japan (Koreans' most-visited overseas destination) are everywhere. As a fortysomething sports fan, I keep seeing packages for Major League Baseball and Premier League trips pop up, too.
Fair enough, targeted ads follow us around. But here's what stands out: it's genuinely hard to find a major platform or super app without a travel vertical now. The most intriguing player? Socar. You know them as Korea's car-sharing platform.
These days, book a hotel through Socar and they'll throw in a 24-hour car voucher. It's not just market expansion—their tagline "stay + free car" reads less like a car company dabbling in hotels and more like a hotel company that also lends you cars.
When you think about it, the combo makes sense. Travel means you're already renting a car or using ride-share. Your endpoint is a hotel or pension. If one app handles the entire journey—and payment—you've simplified the customer experience and unlocked a new revenue stream. As someone who works in travel, the fact that I now open Socar before my usual booking apps feels like a meaningful shift.
Naver and Kakao are equally serious about travel. According to Open Survey's Travel Trends Report 2023, Naver ranks second only to Agoda for overseas travel search and bookings. Open Survey credited "easy reservations and payments" as Naver's key strength. For domestic stays, Naver has locked in the top spot.
Remember Kakao Talk's booking channel we covered in Weekly ON? It's now past 1.15 million followers. I subscribed to test it—push notifications hit 1–3 times a day, which borders on annoying. But people stick around because booking accommodations and activities is genuinely fast and frictionless.
So why is every major platform chasing travel customers? Simple: the market keeps growing.
Recent research pegs the global OTA market at $535.34 million in 2022, with a 10.11% CAGR through 2028—reaching $953.58 million. In today's low-growth economy, a sector reliably growing double digits every year is impossible to ignore.
Add to that: as technology advances, working hours shrink and leisure time expands. National data confirms that higher-income households spend more on leisure and culture—faster. Every indicator says the market is expanding. If you're a platform, you'd be foolish not to jump in.
There's also the fact that travel is a high-ticket, low-hassle online product. Selling shoes? Returns mean reverse logistics and CS headaches. Selling a 3-day family trip? That's ₩1 million+ per transaction, and if a customer cancels, there's no inventory to restock. Until the guest checks in, the platform is basically trading digital goods.
Finally, personal preference data and payment info are the holy grail for platform companies. The more you understand customer behavior and control payment rails, the higher you can push lifetime value per user. Travel delivers both. That's why fintech players are especially aggressive here.
So—platforms going all-in on travel. At this point, not being serious would be the strange move.