User:Jiyoonan/sandbox

History and Company KakaoTalk was nominated for the Most Innovative Mobile App Award at the Global Mobile Awards 2014. Kakao Corp. agreed to buy Daum Communications Corp. to cut costs and save time to jump-start growth and gain a listing in Seoul, South Korea.

Company Business Model KakaoTalk, a free mobile messenger application for smartphones, revealed its first profits of $42 million in 2012 and $200 million in revenue for 2013 With 93% of South Korea's population using KakaoTalk on their smartphones, Kakao Corp. has provided users a large range of services including games and retail commerce.

Kakao Corp. has released more than 10 services in less than three years of entering the mobile market. Starting in 2010 with a "gifting" feature that enabled users to buy gifts and coupons virtually through KakaoTalk and send it to their friends via KakaoTalk. In 2011, Plus Friend was introduced in which users users receive messages, announcements, coupons from celebrities and brand name stores. This is a feature which acts as a source of advertisement and marketing for companies and celebrities, since KakaoTalk does not have banner ads. KakaoTalk also features emoticons that web cartoonists draw, may be purchased in the "Item Store". In 2012, Kakao Corp. introduced their gaming system, Playing Game, in which gaming items may be purchased. Kakao also expanded their social networking system by introducing Kakao Story, a mobile photo sharing application. Kakao Style, a fashion trend and retail application, was introduced along with Choco, Kakao's cyber money. With 93% of South Korea's users on KakaoTalk, the free download of game Ani Pang and Dragon Flight, which can only be played with a Kakao Talk acccount, was deemed "national" games. To maintain simplicity of all provided services, Kakao applications can be purchased and logged in with links to KakaoTalk.

In 2012, KakaoTalk's $42 million revenue is broken down to 67.5% ($31.1M) gaming, 26.2% ($12.1M) advertising, and 6.3% ($2.8M) emoticon sales. In a struggle to beat it's deficiet from 2011, the free mobile messenger application launched gaming, retail, advertising services without banner ads for any of their services. The largest portion of revenue can be generated through games because KakaoTalk's massive social network in the host country. KakaoTalk's method of brand advertisement is demonstrated through advertising channels called Plus Friends, in which users can add the brand as their friend on the mobile messenger. Users will receive content from brands or celebrities as a personal message, instead of banner ads. Companies pay KakaoTalk to create an account (starting prices $20K). Third main source of revenue comes from emoticons can can be purchased within KakaoTalk for $2-3.

KakaoTalk has targeted countries in Southeast Asia where no dominant mobile messenger service stands. In late 2013, Indonesia became the country with the most users of KakaoTalk second to South Korea. KakaoTalk has hit 13 million users and has potential to becoming KakaoTalk's larget market worldwide. KakaoTalk co-CEO, Sirgoo Lee, stated "We grew out user base by more than 25 times in one yera, so hopefully, we will continue at that rate." KakaoTalk has tailored their service to the local environment by collaborating with local deisgners and companies to generate "Indonesian-specific content".

Features Do Not Disturb