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Toss: The Trendsetter Shaping Korea’s Tech Landscape

Toss: The Trendsetter Shaping Korea’s Tech Landscape

In Korea’s fast-moving tech ecosystem, Toss has become a company that sets the standard. From its pioneering approach to product management to its unique UX writing philosophy, Toss has influenced how many Korean companies operate.

But what makes Toss stand out isn’t just its financial services—it’s the way the company builds products, manages teams, and scales its business. Let’s break down how Toss is reshaping Korea’s tech industry.

The Visionary Leadership of Lee Seung-gun

At the center of Toss’s success is Lee Seung-gun, founder and CEO of Viva Republica (Toss’s parent company). His story is one of persistence and bold innovation.

Before Toss, Lee experienced eight startup failures over six years before finally launching his ninth business idea, which became Korea’s first successful peer-to-peer money transfer service.

A Global Vision for Toss

As of February 2025, Toss is aiming for foreign nationals to make up 50% of its total users within five years. This goal signals Toss’s expansion beyond Korea, positioning itself as a global financial super-app.

📌 Toss aims to attract 50% of users from outside Korea in 5 years

The PO Session & Carrying Capacity (CC): A Game-Changer

One of Toss’s biggest contributions to Korea’s product management landscape is its PO Session, where Lee Seung-gun introduced the concept of Carrying Capacity (CC).

Carrying Capacity (CC) is a growth framework that Toss developed to evaluate and optimize product scalability.

  • If a product grows too quickly beyond its CC, it risks performance issues, user dissatisfaction, and retention drops.
  • If growth is too slow, the company misses opportunities to scale efficiently.

The Three Core Pillars of Carrying Capacity (CC):

  1. Balancing User Growth & Product Stability
    • A product must scale at a sustainable rate—expanding too quickly can overwhelm resources, while slow growth means missed opportunities.
  2. Scaling Features to Match CC
    • Each new feature impacts the product’s CC—some increase it by improving efficiency, while others decrease it by adding complexity.
    • Many startups focus too much on user acquisition before expanding CC, leading to churn due to poor service quality.
  3. Data-Driven Adjustments to CC
    • Toss teams rely heavily on A/B testing and real-time analytics to adjust CC dynamically.
    • If users exceed CC, engineering resources are scaled up to maintain quality. If CC is underutilized, features are refined to drive engagement.

📌 Watch Lee Seung-gun’s PO Session on Carrying Capacity (CC)
(*Keep in mind that this youtube video is in Korean.)

Revolutionizing UX Writing in Korea

Before Toss, Korean tech products typically used formal and corporate-style language in their interfaces. Toss changed the game by adopting a conversational, user-friendly tone, making finance feel accessible.

Key Innovations in UX Writing:

  • Removing “Weeds” in Writing – The Toss UX team eliminated unnecessary words, making content simpler and more direct.
  • Automated UX Writing Systems – Toss developed internal tools to standardize tone and voice across all products.
  • Component-Based Error Messages – Toss created reusable templates, ensuring consistency.

📌 How Toss is changing UX Writing in Korea
(This blog is in Korean as well.)

How Toss Structures Its Product Teams

Toss is often cited as the gold standard for product team structure in Korea.

📌 Key elements of Toss’s product teams:

✅ 40 squad-based teams – Each operates like a mini-startup, setting its own six-month goals [6].
✅ Highly data-driven approach – Extensive A/B testing to optimize user experience.
✅ Emphasis on product ownership – Each team has full control over its features and decisions.

A/B Testing & Data-Driven Decisions

Lee Seung-gun himself has admitted:
“Unlike Steve Jobs, we don’t instinctively know what users want. We have to find the right answer through A/B testing.”

📌 Learn more about Toss’s product team structure
(This is in Korean as well, and it's a summary of an interview)

Conclusion: Toss’s Lasting Impact on Korean Tech

  • ✅ Redefined UX Writing in Korea
  • ✅ Introduced Carrying Capacity (CC) as a key product management framework
  • ✅ Set the gold standard for product teams & growth strategies
  • ✅ Expanded beyond fintech into a super app
  • ✅ Pioneered a data-driven, squad-based work model

As Toss continues its global expansion, its influence on Korea’s tech scene will only grow—shaping the next generation of product managers, designers, and engineers.


Hey, If you’re interested in how top tech companies in Korea collaborate,
you can also check out my post on
👉🏻 Communication & Collaboration Tools in Korean Tech Companies
👉🏻 The Most Commonly Used Product Design Tools in Korea.
👉🏻 Most Commonly Used Data Analysis Tools in Korean Tech Companies

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