Making the Worst Experience at Toss
Date
Nov 7, 2025
Classification
- Marketing/Branding/Planning/Design
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Lee Hyun-jung, Toss Product Designer
"You're saying users hate it if we put ads?" The 30 trillion won secret Toss discovered while facing criticism
🫑 3-Line Summary
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Toss shattered the prejudice that "ads harm the user experience" and secured both user trust and revenue simultaneously by providing advance notice of ad viewing and placing them in locations that do not obstruct the user's movement path.
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Beyond simply reducing discomfort, we succeeded in transforming advertising into a 'valuable benefit' through personalized targeting, engaging interactions, and tangible rewards (e.g., pedometer lottery).
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You must remember that business goals and user experience are not in conflict, and that finding an intersection within unchangeable constraints can actually create an explosive impact.
🥦 Insight
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The Power of Planning to Turn 'Homework' into a 'Festival'
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Do you hesitate whenever you consider monetization, wondering, "What if users dislike it?" The case of Toss provides a clear answer. What users dislike is not the 'ads' themselves, but 'rude ads'.
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An ad that suddenly pops up and interrupts the flow is rude, but an ad that politely offers, "If you watch this, I'll give you a 1 million won lottery ticket," becomes an enjoyable game. Ultimately, the key is transparency and reward. Don't hide it; make your offer confidently. And make sure to pay the price for that inconvenience.
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In business, there will inevitably come a time when you have to give customers 'homework' (watching ads, making payments). Instead of feeling apologetic and hiding it, a planner's true skill lies in thinking about how to turn that homework into a fun 'festival.'
— View original —
I am Hyunjeong Lee, in charge of the Benefits Service at Toss. The Benefits Service is a tab where point-giving services and advertisements are gathered. I have been managing the ads and services there for a long time, and now I am focusing on increasing Toss users within the growth domain. In this post, I will share the process of finding the intersection that takes care of both business and user experience.
There is something I always hear when I meet external designers.
Toss designers hate ads, right?
Business or user, what do you ultimately choose?
Don't you fight with the team for the user experience?
Business or user, what do you ultimately choose?
Don't you fight with the team for the user experience?
In reality, Toss is not that simple. We are open to providing advertisements, and we have to take care of both the business and the user experience. To do this, we don't fight with the team; instead, we brainstorm intensely together.
Ultimately, I realized that the important thing is finding the intersection between business and user experience.
I built products in the advertising domain during the time when Toss was actively pursuing its advertising business. No matter what product I created, I had to show 'ads' to users. I ended up creating, for the first time, experiences that were previously unimaginable at Toss and experiences that users would likely dislike.
Every time I made a product, user complaints poured in, and half of them were profanity. Nevertheless, I had to keep making those products. In a situation where I was criticized no matter what I created, I learned something important. I realized how to find the intersection between business and user experience.
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