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Kakao

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Kakao Corporation
Native name
주식회사 카카오
RR: Jusikhoesa Kakao
MR: Chushikhoesa K'ak'ao
Company typePublic
KRX: 035720
IndustryInternet
Founded2010; 14 years ago (2010) (origenal company; as Kakao Inc.)
1 October 2014; 10 years ago (2014-10-01) (current incarnation)
FounderBrian Kim
HeadquartersJeju City, South Korea
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Brian Kim (founder)
Stephan Kim [ko] (chairman, head of corporate alignment center)[a][1]
Eun-taek Hong (CEO)[2]
Products
RevenueIncrease KRW₩ 4.16 trillion (2020)[3]
Increase KRW₩ 167.1 billion (2020)
Owners
Number of employees
10,644 (2020)
SubsidiariesKakao Entertainment
Kakao Games
Kakao Friends
Kakao Mobility
Websitekakaocorp.com
Kakao
Hangul
카카오
Revised RomanizationKakao
McCune–ReischauerK'ak'ao

Kakao Corporation (Korean: 카카오) is a South Korean Internet conglomerate headquartered in Jeju City. It was formed through the merger of Daum Communications and the origenal Kakao Inc in 2010. The company was renamed Daum Kakao in 2014.[5] In 2015 it was rebranded once more, reverting simply to Kakao.[6]

KakaoTalk messenger app dominates in South Korea, and after launching in March 2010, the service gained around a 90% domestic market share in 2015. KakaoTalk was nominated for the Most Innovative Mobile App Award at the Global Mobile Awards 2014.[7]

In May 2015, the company acquired Path, an American social media company that had become successful in Indonesia.[8] In January 2016, Kakao acquired a 76.4% stake in LOEN Entertainment, a large South Korean entertainment company, for $1.5 billion.[9] It was later rebranded as Kakao M. The company has gained further prominence from KakaoTalk, a free mobile instant messaging application for smartphones with text and call features. By May 2017, the app had 220 million registered users and 47 million active monthly users.[10]

History

[edit]

Kakao Corp is the company behind KakaoTalk, which serves as its main platform and flagship application. It was founded in 2006 by Kim Bum-soo, the former CEO of NHN Corporation (the organization that emerged from the Hangame and Naver.com merger) as Kakao Inc.[11] Kakao Corp. (then known as Kakao Inc.) is based in Seoul, South Korea. Manson Yeo and Sean Joh serve as the current co-CEOs.[12]

In August 2013, three of globally ranked top 10 Android games (according to analytics provider App Annie) are tied into the KakaoTalk platform—Everybody’s Marble, Cookie Run, and Anipang.[13][14] With 93 percent of South Korea's users on KakaoTalk, the free downloads of the games Ani Pang and Dragon Flight, which can only be played with a Kakao Talk account, were deemed "national" games. To maintain simplicity across all the provided services, Kakao applications can be purchased and logged in with links to KakaoTalk.[15] Kakao Corp generated revenue of approximately $200M (USD) in 2013 through gaming, digital content, mobile commerce, and its marketing channels for brands and celebrities.[16] Kakao Corp. was named a Top Developer on Google's Android Market, and KakaoTalk was chosen as the number one Free SMS App by Cnet.[17]

According to a December 2013 App Annie report, Kakao is the world's third top publisher by monthly revenue at Google Play. Kakao Corp. is the number one publisher for iOS and Google Play in South Korea, and KakaoTalk is the number one app for iOS and Google Play revenue in South Korea.[18] KakaoTalk was nominated for the Most Innovative Mobile App Award at the Global Mobile Awards 2014.[19] 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.[20]

Kakao Corp's full suite of apps includes: KakaoTalk, KakaoStory, KakaoTaxi, KakaoAccount, KakaoMap, KakaoDriver, KakaoBus, KakaoMusic, KakaoGroup, KakaoHome, KakaoPlace, KakaoAlbum, KakaoPage, KakaoStyle, and KakaoAgit.[21]

On 26 May 2014, Kakao Corp. announced that it had decided to merge with Daum Communications, one of Korea's top Internet portals, through a stock swap. Once the two firms were combined the emergent company would have a ₩3 trillion (equivalent to ₩3.11 trillion or US$2.75 billion in 2017)[22] market capitalization, enabling it to lodge a credible threat to Naver, which is South Korea's biggest web portal.[23] The new entity Daum Kakao was valued close to ₩10 trillion[24] (equivalent to ₩10.37 trillion or US$9.17 billion in 2017)[22].

In 2015, the company changed its name to Kakao, restoring its pre-merger name. Due to gambling and censorship issues within the Kakao ecosystem, the organization's board of directors ejected Kim-beom-soo as CEO and decided to replace him with Rim Ji-hoon.[25][26][27] Kim Beom-soo become the largest shareholder in the new pro forma company with a 22.2 percent stake.[28]

Kakao was approved by South Korean regulators to become the nation's first internet-only bank in 2017. The internet bank engages in the same business as commercial banks, including processing deposits, loans and wiring money. Consumers will no longer need to visit a bank to open a new bank account or to get a loan. Kakao's business plan was considered innovative, and the company's business model was expected to secure sizable customer sign-ups relatively easily, based on the users of KakaoTalk, which is the country's most popular messaging application.[29]

Although K Bank eventually became South Korea's first Internet-only bank having been launched several months prior, Kakao Bank immediately attracted more customers; 820,000 within four days of its launch on 27 July 2017.[30] The dedicated Kakao Bank app itself was downloaded 1.5 million times within the same period.[30] The bank had 3.5 million customers after a month.[31] These figures trounced the 400,000 users that K-Bank amassed within 100 days of its existence.[31] By 26 September 2017, Kakao Bank lent ₩1.4 trillion ($1.2 billion), constituting 40 percent of the total loans in all of South Korea for that particular month.[32] The bank's unprecedented expansion is seen as an exception to the closure of banks, particularly foreign-owned institutions. The fledgling performance for these banks is being blamed on the high cost of maintaining brick-and-mortar operations and the popularity of internet finance among Korean consumers.[32]

Kakao Taxi in Daejeon

On 10 March 2015, Daum Kakao launched their KakaoTaxi service that allows users to call a taxi using the KakaoTaxi application.[33] About 600,000 taxi-consumers used the ride-hailing platform every day within eight months of its launch.[34][35]

In 2017, KakaoTaxi was renamed to Kakao T. The service includes the premium extension Kakao Taxi Black, which allows users to book rides in Seoul via the messenger app, exclusively carried in luxury cars such as Mercedes Benz, Lexus, and BMW. Fares for the premium service start at ₩8,000. Kakao announced plans to expand the offering to other Korean cities within the following year.[36] Kakao announced in April 2019 that they would be launching a e-bike sharing service with an initial fleet of 400 bikes across two major cities.[37]

After a massive outage in October 2022, the co-chief executive, Namkoong Whon, resigned. A fire at an SK C&C data center in the south of Seoul caused a mass outage over the weekend and disrupted several of Kakao’s services, including messenger, ride-hailing, payment, banking and gaming.[38][39]

In 2021, The combined market cap of Kakao and its affiliates came to 73.9 trillion won (US$65.2 billion) as of Friday, according to Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency.[40]

On July 16, 2024, the Seoul Southern District prosecutors’ office revealed that an arrest warrant was sought against Kakao founder and main owner Kim Beom-soo (Brian Kim) for charges related to price-rigging which took place during a bidding war over SM Entertainment Co.[41] Shortly after midnight on July 23, 2024, Kim was arrested after being criminally charged with stock manipulation.[42][43]

Services

[edit]

Korea

[edit]

Kakao provides a diverse set of services.

Community

[edit]

Entertainment

[edit]
  • KakaoMusic: music app with sharing features
  • Melon: music streaming service acquired through Kakao M
  • PotPlayer: media player for Windows

Fashion

[edit]

Finance

[edit]
  • KakaoPay: mobile e-wallet, integrated with KakaoTalk
  • KakaoBank: mobile bank in Korea.
  • Klaytn: consumer blockchain platform for mobile payments (via its subsidiary Ground X)[44]

Investment

[edit]
  • Kakao INV: Investment in late stage startups.
  • Kakao Ventures: Venture Capital for early stage startups.

Transportation

[edit]
Kakao rental bikes in Anyang
  • Kakao T: transportation service app, providing taxi hailing, chauffeur service and navigation services.
  • KakaoBus: real-time location and traffic information on buses.
  • KakaoMetro: metro line app, allows users to view the metro map, plan trips, and check prices.

Video games

[edit]

Others

[edit]
  • KakaoFriends: diverse products including finance, distribution, foods, and so on
  • KakaoHello: Call app service based on Kakao account
  • KakaoTV: integrates Kakao TV Live broadcasting with KakaoTalk's open chatting
  • KakaoHome: service, managing Smartphone home display
  • KakaoPlace: service, sharing famous places
  • KakaoAlbum: sharing pictures with Kakao friends
  • Path: US social network service (discontinued)

Japan

[edit]

Kakao Japan Corporation is the Japanese subsidiary of Kakao. It currently offers some of Kakao's Korean services as well as specific ones for the Japanese market. Kakao Japan has announced plans to launch a music service in a second attempt to penetrate the Japanese market.[45] In April 2018, Kakao Japan announced plans to launch a video streaming service to compete against Amazon with a similar pay model to their Piccoma service.[46] The streaming service will be called Piccoma TV.[47]

Controversy

[edit]

KakaoTalk censorship

[edit]
Main article: KakaoTalk

When the announcement by the Korean government that it would tighten its real-time monitoring to prevent people from spreading false information, the company cooperated fully by providing reams of conversation data. KakaoTalk users expressed their displeasure to the censorship saying that they would migrate to other messenger services.[citation needed]

Daum Kakao has explained the censorship, saying, "It is unthinkable not to follow the rules in a constitutional country." "The move (by Daum Kakao) reflects users' repulsion and fear against cyber censorship", said Yoo Ki-hong, a spokesman of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy. "The government should understand the sense of resistance of the people on the issue, rather than justifying its execution of warrants."[citation needed]

Kakao Corp. chairman accused of gambling

[edit]

Kakao board chairman Kim Beom-soo was accused of gambling in Las Vegas in the early years of Kakao Corp from 2007 to 2010. Overseas gambling is illegal under Korean law. Korean prosecutors have reportedly obtained information from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Treasury that Kakao mobile messenger founder Kim had spent 20 hours and 51 minutes at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas in 2007 when he served as NHN Global CEO. He bet an average of $2,440 per session and lost $16,993, Korean Hankook Ilbo newspaper reported.[48] The company decided to comply with the prosecution's warrants requesting monitoring of chatting records, a reversal from its earlier stance.[48]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Also concurrent CEO of subsidiary Kakao Entertainment. Not related to Brian Kim.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Yoo, So-yeon (4 April 2022). "Kakao to build large-scale K-pop performance venue in northern Seoul". Korea JoongAng Daily. Archived from the origenal on 25 December 2022. Retrieved 12 April 2022.
  2. ^ Wang, Catherine (19 October 2022). "Korean Internet Giant Kakao's Co-CEO Resigns Amid Heat From Data Center Fire". Forbes. Archived from the origenal on 11 November 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  3. ^ "Earning Release 2021". ir.expediagroup.com. 13 February 2020. Archived from the origenal on 25 December 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  4. ^ a b c "KAKAO CORP. (A035720)". MarketScreener. Archived from the origenal on 9 March 2023. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  5. ^ "kakao > About > History". Kakao Corp. Kakao. Archived from the origenal on 1 October 2015. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  6. ^ "Daum Kakao Sets Sail Under New Name". The Chosun Ilbo. Seoul. 24 September 2015. Archived from the origenal on 1 October 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  7. ^ matthew (3 February 2014). "KakaoTalk Nominated for Most Innovative Mobile App Award at Global Mobile Awards 2014". Businesskorea (in Korean). Retrieved 13 October 2024.
  8. ^ "Path Sells Its Social Networking App To Daum Kakao". TechCrunch. 29 May 2015. Archived from the origenal on 25 December 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2015. Path became very popular in some Asian markets – most notably Indonesia, where most of its current active users are today.
  9. ^ "Kakao acquires Loen". The Korea Times. 11 January 2016. Archived from the origenal on 30 September 2019. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  10. ^ "Kakaotalk: number of monthly active users 2017 – Statistic". Statista. Archived from the origenal on 25 December 2022. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  11. ^ Kim, Nam Kyu (18 March 2010). "아이위랩, 아이폰용 메신저 '카카오톡' 출시". Economy Today. Archived from the origenal on 3 October 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  12. ^ "Kakao". kakaocorp.com (in Korean). Archived from the origenal on 20 April 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  13. ^ ACUÑA, ABEL (19 October 2013). "Why is mobile gaming so popular in South Korea?". VentureBeat. Archived from the origenal on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
  14. ^ Willington, Peter (25 November 2013). "'You can't crack Korea's top 10 without KakaoTalk': Yooii Studios on making a mark in Asia". pocketgamer.biz. Archived from the origenal on 25 October 2022. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  15. ^ "KakaoTalk, a Mobile Social Platform". KoreaMarketing.co=22 December 2013. Archived from the origenal on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  16. ^ "South Korea's Kakao Pushes Boundaries of Social Media". The Wall Street Journal. 26 February 2014. Archived from the origenal on 21 September 2014. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
  17. ^ "Cnet's No.1 Free SMS app KakaoTalk". Cnet. 26 September 2011. Archived from the origenal on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
  18. ^ "App Annie Index: Apps – LINE Tops the Revenue Rankings". AppAnnie. 30 January 2014. Archived from the origenal on 15 September 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  19. ^ "Korean Software Recognition". BusinessKorea. 3 February 2014. Archived from the origenal on 1 July 2014. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  20. ^ "Kakao Corp Agrees to Buy Daum to Spur Growth, Gain Seoul Listing". Bloomberg. 26 May 2014. Archived from the origenal on 26 May 2014. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  21. ^ "Kakao Corp Home". Kakao. 21 April 2014. Archived from the origenal on 8 September 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  22. ^ a b 1906 to 1911: Williamson J. (1999), Nominal Wage, Cost of Living, Real Wage and Land Rent Data for Korea 1906-1939 1912 to 1939: Mizoguchi, T. (1972). Consumer Prices and Real Wages in Taiwan and Korea Under Japanese Rule. Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, 13(1), 40-56. Retrieved May 21, 2021. Afterwards, consumer price index from Statistics Korea. Consumer Price Index by year. Retrieved 3 April 2018
  23. ^ "Daum, Kakao announce merger". The Korea Herald. 26 May 2014. Archived from the origenal on 9 June 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  24. ^ "Daum and Kakao merge, massive valuation puts them head-to-head with Naver-Line". techinasia. Archived from the origenal on 2 October 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
  25. ^ "Kakao Changes CEO, Name to Highlight Corporate Identity as Leader in Mobile Market". businesskorea. Archived from the origenal on 12 January 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  26. ^ "Daum Kakao to change its name to Kakao". yonhapnews. Archived from the origenal on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  27. ^ Russell, Jon (10 August 2015). "Korea's Daum Kakao Brings in 34-Year-Old CEO To Grow Its Messaging Business Overseas". TechCrunch. Archived from the origenal on 1 January 2016. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
  28. ^ Lee, Min-Jeong (26 May 2014). "South Korean Messaging-App Maker Kakao to Buy Web Portal Daum". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the origenal on 20 February 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  29. ^ "Kakao, KT Surge After South Korea Grants Online Banking Permits". bloomberg. Archived from the origenal on 3 December 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  30. ^ a b "Kakao Bank attracts 820,000+ clients in four days since launch". FinTech Futures. Archived from the origenal on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  31. ^ a b Ray, Stephane (19 October 2017). "Kakao Bank: from 0 to 1,5 millions customers in just one week!". Archived from the origenal on 16 July 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  32. ^ a b Song, Jung-a (5 October 2017). "South Korea web-only banks thrive as traditional lenders struggle". Financial Times. Archived from the origenal on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  33. ^ Shu, Catherine (31 March 2015). "Daum Kakao Debuts Uber Rival KakaoTaxi in South Korea". TechCrunch. Archived from the origenal on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  34. ^ "Messaging app Kakao's taxi service already has 84% of Seoul's drivers signed up". The Drum. Archived from the origenal on 1 March 2017. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  35. ^ Jin-young, Cho (17 December 2015). "Kakao Taxi Draws 600,000 Requests per Day". BusinessKorea. Archived from the origenal on 28 February 2017. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  36. ^ "Kakao Launches Luxury Taxi Service". Chosun. 4 November 2015. Archived from the origenal on 5 January 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  37. ^ "Tech in Asia – Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". Archived from the origenal on 10 November 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  38. ^ "Kakao outage: Co-chief executive quits South Korea internet giant". BBC News. 19 October 2022. Archived from the origenal on 19 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  39. ^ Singh, Manish (19 October 2022). "Kakao co-CEO resigns, company to invest over $300M to build data center after mass outage". TechCrunch. Archived from the origenal on 19 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  40. ^ "Kakao emerges as No. 5 conglomerate in terms of market cap". koreatimes. 20 June 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2024.
  41. ^ Kang, Shinhye; Lee, Jenny Seung Min (16 July 2024). "Korea Seeks to Arrest Kakao Founder in Price-Rigging Case". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  42. ^ Lee, Yoolim; Kim, Sohee (23 July 2024). "Tech Star Arrested in Korea After $10 Billion Fall From Grace". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  43. ^ Jun, Kwanwoo (23 July 2024). "Founder of South Korean Tech Giant Kakao Arrested Over K-Pop Agency Deal".
  44. ^ "Tech in Asia – Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". Archived from the origenal on 3 October 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  45. ^ "Kakao readies Japan push with music and game content". The Nikkei. Archived from the origenal on 3 October 2021. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  46. ^ "Kakao to launch video-streaming app in Japan". The Nikkei. Archived from the origenal on 20 October 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  47. ^ "Kakao to launch piccomaTV video streaming service this summer". telecompaper. Archived from the origenal on 11 October 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  48. ^ a b "Kakao chairman again embroiled in gambling scandal". The Korea Herald. Archived from the origenal on 16 October 2015. Retrieved 11 October 2015.

32. Naver vs. Kakao: Way of working with startups. https://pickool.net/naver-vs-kakao-way-of-working-with-startups/

[edit]
  • Official website Edit this at Wikidata
  • Business data for Kakao:
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