People in South Korea are gathering in public squares, heads down and furiously tapping away on their phones. Not to scroll social media, but to make a few cents. It sounds nearly absurd, but it’s spreading fast and says a lot about where regular people are financially right now.
What is really going on
South Korean fintech app Toss, run by startup Viva Republica, has turned everyday phone use into a micro-earning game. You can walk 10,000 steps, do small tasks like following a social media account, or just tap your screen if another Toss user is close by, and make up to 10 cents per action. Since the feature launched in January, 4.4 million users have used it, and people are opening the app 30% more often than they did before.
Think that sounds like pocket change? For a lot of people, it is, which is the point.
A 27-year-old office worker said, "I've only made 150 won ($0.11) so far, but I plan to continue so I can buy coffee or pay for something using the app." A 77-year-old retiree raked in $37 by showing up at a museum in Seoul, a known Toss hotspot, every day during the same period.
Why it resonates beyond South Korea
If you’re a millennial or Gen Z American, this may not sound so weird. Think about all those cashback apps, points programs, and “earn rewards” features you’ve enrolled in the last few years. The Toss phenomenon is just a more visible, more communal version of something already baked into how younger generations engage with money.
Research published in the Financial Planning Review found that gamification in financial apps significantly influences users' financial behavior, particularly among those with established financial planning habits, suggesting that turning money management into a game is not just a gimmick but a genuine behavioral nudge. That’s exactly what apps like Toss are betting on.
South Korea’s situation also echoes pressures familiar to Americans. Consumer inflation there accelerated to 5.1% in 2022, the highest in 24 years, with food prices up nearly 6% and transport costs rising close to 10%. Youth unemployment is acute, with nearly 500,000 15-29-year-olds having completely dropped out of the job market by early this year. Where traditional financial systems seem out of reach, people get creative to find workarounds, even if it means standing outside a museum, hoping someone nearby has the same app.
The loyalty app economy was already here
This model has been quietly flourishing in the US for years: shop and get cash back, or make money watching videos and taking surveys, or reward-based engagement platforms. The difference is that these apps are generally used in private, at home, alone.
What’s remarkable about the Toss phenomenon is the public, almost spontaneous community it created. People weren't recruited; they just showed up at the same place because word got out. US companies have been trying to engineer that sort of organic, real-world behavior enabled by a digital app for years.
The catch you probably saw coming
When an app pays you to show up, tap a screen, and do small tasks, it’s not doing it out of the goodness of its heart. It’s collecting data about your behavior, location, habits, and social graph, and that's precious data.
Professor Lee Eun-hee of Inha University put it more directly: it’s a good thing to be thinking about making pocket money, but it can also leave people vulnerable to the ways in which their personal data is used down the line.
A Harris Poll survey found that 71 percent of Americans would be less likely to join a rewards program that collects personal information, such as addresses and account details. Yet, loyalty programs continue to proliferate, suggesting that the promise of rewards is powerful enough to override privacy concerns for many users.
That tension, between earning something tangible and giving away something invisible, is at the heart of every rewards app. Most people don’t read the fine print, and with a payout of a mere 11 cents, the cost-benefit math requires a pause.
So is it worth it?
Sure, for some. If you’re already walking 10,000 steps or checking your phone obsessively, earning a little side cash doesn’t take much extra effort. However, going out of your way, skipping lunch to stand in a parking lot, or refreshing an app for a dollar a week, that’s a different equation.
The larger narrative isn’t about Toss. It’s a sign of what people are doing. When people start engineering their everyday lives around making cents on the dollar, it’s a pretty clear sign that the financial pressure on ordinary people is real and that they’re willing to be creative to cope with it.
