There is a silent crisis that runs through organizations around the world and that the balance sheets do not fully capture: work disconnection. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2025 report, global employee engagement fell to 21% in 2024, matching the lowest levels since the start of the pandemic, with an estimated cost of $438 billion in lost productivity. It is not a minor fact: it represents a structural drain that affects margins, talent retention and competitiveness. And yet, the market response came not just from major organizational reforms or costly cultural redesigns, but from a deceptively simple financial instrument: the gift card.
What for decades was a seasonal marketing resource—the classic Christmas gift card—has been transformed into a strategic tool for people management and business loyalty. The global digital gift card market reached $47.15 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $98.17 billion by 2034, with an annual growth rate of 8.49%. It is not a niche: it is an industry that redefines the relationship between companies, employees and distribution channels.
The economic logic behind this growth is clear. According to Fiserv’s Q4 2024 Gift Card Gauge, 89% of respondents say receiving a reward or incentive from their employer makes them feel valued members of the team. Additionally, 45% feel that these incentives motivate them to stay in their jobs, 81% state that it makes them more likely to recommend their company, and 58% say that they increase their productivity. The numbers are not human resources rhetoric: they are measurable return on investment.
This phenomenon is not exclusive to the Anglo-Saxon world. In Chile, for example, it is estimated that the market for gift cards and corporate incentives will reach approximately $1.29 billion in 2025, with sustained growth since 2020. In Brazil, which leads the region in absolute value, the sector is growing strongly thanks to the use of digital cards, mobile commerce and rewards models. Latin America does not observe this trend from the outside: it is the protagonist.
In Argentina, this scenario took concrete form with the launch of KURU, a local fintech that has just presented a card to the bearer – available in physical or virtual format – aimed at incentives, recognition and loyalty. The product aims to solve one of the main operational bottlenecks that companies face: the need to reward without bureaucracy. Traditional processes—user registration, issuing personalized cards, onboarding—slow down the response in contexts where immediacy matters: an internal raffle, a commercial closing, an achievement that deserves recognition at the moment. The solution operates on the Mastercard network, can be integrated with digital wallets such as Mercado Pago or MODO, and allows companies to obtain an invoice for 100% of the amount charged, a key differential in an environment where fiscal traceability is increasingly demanding.
What KURU embodies is actually a global trend: the convergence between fintech and human capital management. Companies have increased gift card incentives by 55% to drive employee engagement, digital gift card adoption is up 60%, and mobile-based transactions are up 70%. The digital channel is not an accessory: it is the backbone of the new recognition ecosystem.
Employee preference also speaks for itself. According to a Fiserv survey, around 80% of employees prefer to receive gift cards over other types of non-monetary incentives. 86% consider them an appropriate form of job recognition, and 74% find them more valuable than other forms of incentives. Traditional corporate gifts—merchandising, baskets, undifferentiated objects—will not disappear, but they are losing ground to an instrument that gives the recipient the agency to choose.
From a macroeconomic perspective, the global corporate gift market also reflects this transformation. The sector was valued at $305.96 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $633.88 billion by 2033, growing at an annual rate of 8.43%. More than 61% of corporations currently integrate gifting into their marketing or human resources strategies.
The underlying argument is not sentimental: it is productive. Research shows that engaged teams perform 20% higher and are 87% less likely to leave the company. In a context of talent shortage, recruitment cost inflation and organizational volatility, retaining with timely recognition is more efficient than replacing with late hiring.
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by RN
