Google Play Integrates K PLUS via Antom Merchant Payment Service, Expanding Payment Options for Users in Thailand

SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 31, 2025--

Google Play, Ant International’s Antom and KASIKORNBANK today announced the launch of K PLUS as a new local payment method on Google Play, marking the first time that a SEA mobile banking app is made available as a payment option in the platform.

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Google Play gives users one place to find, enjoy and share their favorite apps, games, books and more, for any Android device. K PLUS, operated by KASIKORNBANK, is one of SEA’s most widely used mobile banking apps. Its 14 million users on Android devices will be able to pay for global and local digital content on Google Play using their everyday banking app.

The rollout also marks the first time that Antom, the unified merchant payment service under Ant International, enables recurring payment capabilities on a banking app to support global enterprise merchants, building on its experience with digital wallets.

Antom has been a strategic partner to Google Play in expanding payment options in Asia Pacific (APAC), and continues driving growth in both transaction volumes and user acquisitions. With the K PLUS launch, Antom further strengthens its collaboration with Google Play, by adding digital wallets that serve millions of users in the region.

Leveraging its AI-driven solutions for payment orchestration, risk management and digital marketing, Antom supports merchants to integrate over 300 payment methods across over 100 currencies in its extensive global acquiring network.

The Asia Pacific region leads the world in digital payment adoption, accounting for nearly two-thirds of global digital wallet spend in 2024, according to a Deloitte report1. In response to this growth, Antom has helped Google Play enable a growing list of leading payment options including DANA, GCash and Touch 'n Go eWallet since 2022. Google Play and Antom will continue to work together to increase local payment coverage and enhance payment experiences.

Beyond payments, Antom also supports Google Play in launching digital campaigns through its A+ Rewards, an in-App digital marketing platform powered by privacy-preserving computing and AI technologies. Embedded within leading e-wallets across Asia, A+Rewards connects Google Play with hundreds of millions of e-wallet users. Over 2023 and 2024, consumers claimed over 20 million Google Play vouchers from A+Rewards on regional e-wallets.

“Google Play is committed to continuously providing the best experience for users and supporting the growth of the digital ecosystem for developers. We're excited to announce that Google Play now supports K PLUS as a new payment option in Thailand,” said Zulfi Rahardian, Head of Google Play Retail & Payments Activation, Southeast Asia. “With this launch, we hope Thai consumers can purchase games, apps, entertainment and digital content more easily through safe, fast, and seamless transactions.”

“At KASIKORNBANK, we are committed to continuously enhancing our digital payment infrastructure to offer our customers a seamless, fast, and secure financial experience. This collaboration with Google Play and Antom expands payment choices for Google Play users in Thailand, allowing them to pay directly for apps and digital content by linking their account with K PLUS. We are proud to be the first bank in Thailand and SEA to enable mobile banking payments on Google Play. Today, we have around 14 million K PLUS users on Android, and our goal is to have more than 1 million linked accounts by the end of 2025,” said Dr. Ketchayong Skowratananont, Executive Vice President of KASIKORNBANK.

“Payment localisation isn't just about convenience. It's about building the infrastructure for digital inclusion,” said Gary Liu, General Manager of Antom, Ant International. “We're excited to expand our collaboration with Google Play by introducing K PLUS as a new payment option. With AI-powered solutions, we aim to make digital payments easier and more secure while helping merchants scale more efficiently.”

This collaboration forms a pillar of the broader strategic partnership between Google and Ant International.

About KASIKORNBANK

KASIKORNBANK PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED operates business in line with the principles of a Bank of Sustainability, focusing on delivering sustainable value to all stakeholders. This is achieved through good corporate governance and appropriate risk and cost management.

KBank has unveiled our “3+1 Strategy and Productivity”, building our strengths and enhancing our capabilities in several areas. Our strategic priorities are to reinvigorate credit performance, scale our capital-lite fee income business, and strengthen and pioneer sales and service models to reaffirm K PLUS’s leadership. Concurrently, the Bank has implemented strategies to help create new revenue in the medium- and long-term, while also enhancing our competitiveness via key enablers including technology, scalable data and analytics, and being a performance-driven organization.

About Antom

Ant International's Antom is the leading payment and digitisation services provider for merchants around the world. It offers unified, vertical-specific digital payment solutions to serve businesses of all sizes. Antom supports merchants to integrate over 300 payment methods, enabling them to connect with consumers in more than 200 markets, with the flexibility to accept payments in more than 100 currencies. Beyond payments, it provides digital marketing solutions and merchant digitisation services to help merchant streamline operations and enhance customer engagement. To learn more, please visit https://www.antom.com/.

 

Over 14 million K PLUS users on Android devices will be able to make purchases on Google Play, directly through their everyday banking app.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An independent counsel on Tuesday demanded a death sentence for former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on rebellion charges in connection with his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024.

Removed from office last April, Yoon faces eight trials over various criminal charges related to his martial law debacle and other scandals related to his time in office. Charges that he directed a rebellion are the most significant ones.

Independent counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team requested the Seoul Central District Court to sentence Yoon to death, according to the court.

The Seoul court is expected to deliver a verdict on Yoon in February. Experts say the court likely will sentence him to life in prison. South Korea hasn't executed anyone since 1997.

Yoon was scheduled to make remarks at Tuesday's hearing. He has maintained that his decree was a desperate yet peaceful attempt to raise public awareness about what he considered the danger of the liberal opposition Democratic Party, which used its legislative majority to obstruct his agenda. He called the opposition-controlled parliament “a den of criminals” and “anti-state forces.”

Yoon’s decree, the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea, brought armed troops into Seoul streets to encircle the assembly and enter election offices. That evoked traumatic memories of dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed rulers used martial law and other emergency decrees to station soldiers and armored vehicles in public places to suppress pro-democracy protests.

On the night of Yoon's martial law declaration, thousands of people rushed to the National Assembly to object to the decree and demand his resignation in dramatic scenes. Enough lawmakers, including even those in Yoon’s ruling party, managed to enter an assembly hall to vote down the decree.

Observers described Yoon’s action as political suicide. Parliament impeached him and sent the case to the Constitutional Court, which ruled to dismiss him as president.

It was a spectacular downfall for Yoon, a former star prosecutor who won South Korea’s presidency in 2022, a year after entering politics.

Lee Jae Myung, a former Democratic Party leader who led Yoon's impeachment bid, became president by winning a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to delve into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.

There had been speculation that Yoon resorted to martial law to protect his wife, Kim Keon Hee, from potential corruption investigations. But in wrapping up a six-month investigation last month, independent counsel Cho’s team concluded that Yoon plotted for over a year to impose martial law to eliminate his political rivals and monopolize power.

Yoon’s decree and ensuing power vacuum plunged South Korea into political turmoil, halted the country’s high-level diplomacy and rattled its financial markets.

Yoon’s earlier vows to fight attempts to impeach and arrest him deepened the country’s political divide. In January last year, he became the country’s first sitting president to be detained.

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside of Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

FILE - Then South Korea's ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol who is facing charges of orchestrating a rebellion when he declared martial law on Dec. 3, arrives to attend his trial at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, Pool, File)