KakaoTalk, a free mobile messenger application for smartphones with free text and free call features. First released on March 18, 2010 by Kakao Corp, KakaoTalk is joining hands with Korean K-pop star and local celebrities to promote its service.
Kakao Corp. was first founded by Beom-Soo Kim, a former CEO of NHN Corporation. He was the founder of Hangame, that merged with Naver.com to create NHN. Based in Seoul, South Korea, Jae-Bum Lee and Sirgoo Lee are the Co-CEOs.
KakaoTalk provides free call and text messaging service. Users can share contents and information from photos, videos, voice messages, URL links to contact information. Both one-on-one chat and group chats are available over both WiFi or cellular 3G. With no limits to the number of friends to join in group chat, users in group chats can also do free call.
The app automatically synchronizes with user's contact list on their mobile device and find friends who are also using the service. Users can also search friends by KakaoTalk ID without having to know their phone number. The KakaoTalk service also allows the option for its users to export their messages and save them for future reference.
KakaoTalk, translated to many different languages, has reached 57 million users registered on August, 2012. An average of 24 million users are estimated to be using the app on a daily basis, sending about 3.4 billion messages each day. Kakao Corp. was named a "Top Developer" on Google's Android Market.
KakaoTalk is available for Android, iOS, Windows Phone and Bada OS.
KakaoTalk and Celebrities
Starting from March 17th 2013, KakaoTalk that had released a beta version of KakaoTalk PC, began TV commercials by featuring K-pop star, Big Bang. In the commercial, Big Bang appears together with other local celebrities on the screen to promote KakaoTalk.
KakaoTalk is trying to attract global consumers by introducing its voting system 'Kakao Poll' or multichannel technology in foreign markets earlier than in Korean market. The intention behind these attempt to achieve recognizable position outside of domestic market appears to be started out from fear of remaining only as a domestic demand-oriented firm.
One venture company official claims, “I am not sure how successful the newly releasing contents distribution platform Kakao page will be, but they can no longer expect remarkable growth in a domestic market anymore, instead, to experience the great leap once again, oversea market will be a key."
Besides Japan and Vietnam, Indonesia is also targeted in KakaoTalk’s expansion plan. Between January and February, the company recorded a staggering 288 percent growth in users for Indonesia. KakaoTalk also partnered with two Indonesian companies, Pizza Hut Delivery and Groupon as the country’s first brand partners for its 'Plus Friends' feature. The company also embraced Sherina Munaf and numerous other Indonesian celebrities and artists that include Saykoji and street artist Popo in designing local stickers.
Indonesia is chosen as the second target market for expansion from the macro-economic perspective Kakao Corp. sees, Indonesians are adopting smartphones in such a way that handheld devices are becoming more than just a social trend. This is boosted by the increasing number of affordable Android smartphones in Indonesia.
Since BlackBerry is still have a strong ground for Indonesian because of its BBM (BlackBerry Messaging), Kakao Corps. sees the nature of Indonesians to be very chatty and social. These made Indonesia a very potential market for KakaoTalk.