Payoneer, a New York-based payments processing company, officially launched a new South Korea office Tuesday, targeting small and midsized businesses here that sell their products globally via online marketplaces like Amazon and Alibaba.

“Launching Payoneer’s office in Korea shouldn’t come as a surprise. Korea is a fast-growing economy and the seventh biggest e-commerce market in the world,” said Payoneer’s General Manager for Direct Business Eyal Moldovan during a press conference in Seoul.

For this reason, Korea has been at the top of the priority list as Payoneer has begun setting up a presence in Asia, including Japan, China and the Philippines, according to Patrick de Courcy, head of the Asia-Pacific region at Payoneer. 

Founded in 2005, Payoneer is a firm that facilitates cross-border transactions between an online marketplace and individual sellers. It processes customer payments made on e-commerce sites like Amazon, Lazada and Shoppe, then passes on the payments to sellers.

Payoneer’s clients also include freelancers active on other online marketplaces such as lodging rental platform AirBnb and stock photography marketplace Getty Images.

How does Payoneer work? For instance, for a Korean business selling a product on Amazon US, Payoneer would generated a virtual US account for that seller through which he or she can receive customer payments. Later the funds would be transferred to the seller’s local bank account via Payoneer.

The payments processing firm says that by using its platform -- which collects a service fee of 1.2 percent or lower -- clients can avoid various transaction fees generated as money passes through various entities.

Payoneer also promises to offer clients speedier services by completing the payment retrieval process in just two days, compared to around a week that would be required if traditional payment processing channels were used.

Looking ahead, Payoneer hopes to capitalize on the growing number of cross-border payments being made around the world. Cross-border B2B payments volume is expected to exceed $51 trillion by 2020 and $85 trillion by 2025, with most of the growth coming from emerging markets, Moldovan said.

Payoneer Korea’s office is based at a WeWork office in Gangnam. It will be led by Lee Woo-yong, Payoneer’s Country Manager for Korea.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)