Naver Pay adds airport checkpoints to Facesign facial recognition use cases

Korea’s Naver Pay app, which uses face biometrics, is expanding use cases at airports and growing its footprint with new deployments.

The Korea Times reports that Naver has integrated its Facesign facial authentication that backs the Naver Pay service with Smartpass, a biometric airport checkpoint system at Incheon International. Smartpass was launched back in 2023 by Incheon Airport.

The integration enables users to register their facial information, passport and boarding pass in advance through the app. The service is available to any Korean national aged 14 and older, and to 7 to 14-year-olds with parental consent. Customers who are already registered for Facesign – which has been field-tested at large festivals and events – only have to register a passport to activate Smartpass.

For foreigners in South Korea, Naver launched a passport verification service earlier in June. Visitors to the country can take a photo of their passport and a selfie for biometric matching to enable the use of its popular app for booking services, placing orders and making payments.

Facesign’s first commercial deployment for payments through Naver Pay was in 2024, at Kyung Hee University in Seoul.

Maeil Business quotes Lee Hyang-chul, head of Naver Pay, says “we expect Facesign, verified at large events such as Inventario, the largest stationery fair in Korea, and at various festival sites, to provide a quick and convenient experience to airport users during the summer vacation season.” There are plans to expand Facesign to “more diverse places in the future.”

Last year, Naver Pay signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Tourism Organization to expand Npay Connect, its offline integrated terminal, at major tourist facilities, popular restaurants, airports, and other locations frequently visited by foreign travelers. One major partnership sees Npay Connect deployed across some 3,400 retail locations of the Paris Baguette bakery chain across South Korea.

Integration with the Smartpass program complements this effort. Airlines that accept facial scans under the Smartpass program include Korean Air, Asiana Airlines, Air Seoul, Eastar Jet, Jeju Air and Jin Air.

The Korea National Biometric Test Center, the biometrics lab run by the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), has assessed Naver Pay’s face biometrics algorithm and matching at the payment stage at over 99 percent accurate.

While Naver is South Korea’s second-most popular mobile payment service, it is not the only South Korean firm exploring face biometrics. In addition to Naver Pay, Shinhan Card and Toss have installed biometric systems across supermarket chains – perhaps prompting Naver’s expansion of its point-of-sale facial recognition tech.

Naver is also bidding for a central position in the country’s AI economy. It has partnered with massive chip maker Nvidia, and plans to open a “hyperscale data center” in the first half of 2027 to build an AI factory capable of simultaneously housing hundreds of thousands of Nvidia’s latest GPUs.

Article Topics

airport biometrics  |  biometric authentication  |  biometric payments  |  facial recognition  |  Korea National Biometric Test Center  |  Naver  |  South Korea