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eslwriter
Joined: 15 Sep 2010
Location: A dot on the planet with an exaggerated sense of importance.
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 Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 2:55 am Post subject: Setting up an online business in Korea |
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Does anyone have experience setting up an online business based in Korea?
I have found a few web businesses operated by foreigners in Korea that accept payments through bank transfers, not online credit card processors.
Has anyone set up an online credit card processing system with a Korean merchant account?
Married to a local, domestic ownership issues are not a problem. I'm interested in the technical feasibility of setting up a merchant account and a credit card processor.
Cheers,
eslwriter
www.eslwriting.org |
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r.
Joined: 06 May 2006
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| Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 4:53 am Post subject: |
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I'm interested to hear the answers to this. I had thought that it would be easy to just have paypal process credit cards for you (it is not necessary to have a merchant account for paypal to do this). Why would it be an issue in korea?
Literally 100,000s of businesses around the world process credit cards online through paypal with or without a merchant account. You don't even need a credit check to set up a paypal standard payment system. For example, that bookstore in Itaewon, whatthebook.com, accepts credit cards online using paypal.
Whatthebook also offers payments through korean credit cards or online korean bank transfer (both in Korean, and requiring internet explorer, though) and offline bank transfers at an atm (possible in English).
I want to hear more about the supposed obstacles to setting up paypal in Korea. I don't understand why it would be a problem. |
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crossmr
Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Location: Hwayangdong, Seoul
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| Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:41 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| I want to hear more about the supposed obstacles to setting up paypal in Korea. I don't understand why it would be a problem. |
Even if you manage to connect your bank account to paypal, it's pointless as you cannot directly transfer funds from it to paypal. All you can really do is connect a Korean credit card to Paypal and use it as intermediary.
Paypal is limited in Korea.
A lot of smaller online businesses in Korea use bank transfers. If you're going to be doing business only in Korea, it is not a bad place to start. Bank transfers are far more convenient here than they seem to be back home, at least the last time I tried any back home. |
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nick70100
Joined: 09 Sep 2005
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| Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 8:40 am Post subject: |
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http://www.inicis.com
http://www.kcp.co.kr
Both of these companies offer the services you are looking for, and I'm sure there are more out there too. Both sites are in Korean, but if you're starting a business in Korea you better speak Korean or at least have someone on your staff who does.
Is your business going to target Koreans or Foreigners?
If you're going to set up an English website targeting foreigners there may be problems. All of the Korean banks require ActiveX software to accept payments. This software works in internet explorer only. It may or may not be in Korean only. And it will likely be hard for foreigners who can't speak Korean to figure out how to use it. (users must visit their bank's website, register card for online use, download certificate file, etc)
If you're setting up a Korean website for Koreans then this won't be a problem because they're used to it. |
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eslwriter
Joined: 15 Sep 2010
Location: A dot on the planet with an exaggerated sense of importance.
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| Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 2:18 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for those comments. I'm targeting a global audience - it's the internet after all - so Korean peculiarities like Active X for IE sound like a barrier considering the widespread use of other browsers around the world.
Here is a question which I will investigate further but will throw out for now. Why don't foreigners in Korea use Click Bank or 2checkout as their credit card processor? You don't need a merchant account and they both do international bank wires.
Cheers
www.eslwriting.org |
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nick70100
Joined: 09 Sep 2005
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| Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 5:44 pm Post subject: |
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| eslwriter wrote: |
Thanks for those comments. I'm targeting a global audience - it's the internet after all - so Korean peculiarities like Active X for IE sound like a barrier considering the widespread use of other browsers around the world.
Here is a question which I will investigate further but will throw out for now. Why don't foreigners in Korea use Click Bank or 2checkout as their credit card processor? You don't need a merchant account and they both do international bank wires.
Cheers
www.eslwriting.org |
I can only speculate, but there are a few issues I can imagine. The Clickbank and 2checkout both allow payments in a few different major currencies, but they don't allow won. So if you have a business in Korea primarily selling things to people in Korea it makes things a little bit tricky. You would have to accept payments in US dollars for example. Your profits may vary right along with currency fluctuations. You could put the prices on your website in won and have them automatically converted to dollars at payment time, but that can be less than ideal too, especially for things like refunds were the value of the won might go up or down between payment and refund times. These systems don't work with Korean domestic-only cards, which a lot of people in Korea have. And finally, perhaps the most obvious, there are significant fees involved in accepting credit cards, transaction fees, international wire transfer fees, currency conversion fees, etc. If you are really trying to keep your costs down then bank transfers aren't such a bad idea in Korea where they are cheap and easy.
On the other hand, if your website is targeting a global audience I don't think you will have these problems. Setting your prices in dollars or euros or whatever probably makes more sense than won. |
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r.
Joined: 06 May 2006
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 2:09 am Post subject: |
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| crossmr wrote: |
| Quote: |
| I want to hear more about the supposed obstacles to setting up paypal in Korea. I don't understand why it would be a problem. |
Even if you manage to connect your bank account to paypal, it's pointless as you cannot directly transfer funds from it to paypal. All you can really do is connect a Korean credit card to Paypal and use it as intermediary.
Paypal is limited in Korea.
A lot of smaller online businesses in Korea use bank transfers. If you're going to be doing business only in Korea, it is not a bad place to start. Bank transfers are far more convenient here than they seem to be back home, at least the last time I tried any back home. |
Then he could just attach Paypal to his bank account in his home country, right? Why would he need to use his Korean bank? If necessary he could just register the business in his home country, or in Korea and his home country. |
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FDNY
Joined: 27 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 7:47 pm Post subject: |
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| eslwriter wrote: |
Thanks for those comments. I'm targeting a global audience - it's the internet after all - so Korean peculiarities like Active X for IE sound like a barrier considering the widespread use of other browsers around the world.
Here is a question which I will investigate further but will throw out for now. Why don't foreigners in Korea use Click Bank or 2checkout as their credit card processor? You don't need a merchant account and they both do international bank wires.
Cheers
www.eslwriting.org |
If you're targeting a Global audience, then why do want to know how to set this up in Korea? Put your server anywhere you want. Use whatever bank and cedit card system you want. |
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