Daum Kakao Corp., a leading mobile lifestyle platform provider, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Path as part of the company’s global expansion efforts. The acquisition will take form in Daum Kakao carrying out an asset acquisition of Path the social network and Path Talk the messaging app.
“We created Path as a network that brings users a source of happiness, meaning and connection. We’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished over the last 5 years together with 10 million monthly active users, but we’ve reached a point where more resources are needed to help accelerate Path’s ability to grow and scale,” said Dave Morin, CEO and co founder of Path. Morin added, “We believe Daum Kakao, with its deep understanding of the Asian market and experience in leading mobile innovation, will be able to provide Path users with additional resources and value.”
Alex Kim, head of Daum Kakao Indonesia said, “Path’s strong user base in the fast growing Indonesian market makes it a powerful candidate for growth into a mobile lifestyle platform with rich services that impacts users on a daily basis,” and continued, “We believe there is huge potential for Daum Kakao and Path in the global market, and we are looking forward to bringing out meaningful synergy with other Daum Kakao services and provide greater value to our users."
Path was first developed in November 2010 to provide users with a personal, private environment for sharing and connecting. It ensures maximum control over user privacy, and it can be used both as a journal for personal record keeping, as well as a way to share news, photos and updates with close family and friends. Its selective sharing features, which allow users to share posts with just a designated group of friends, appealed strongly to the Asian market and contributed to its leadership in the South East Asia region, especially in Indonesia.
Daum Kakao expects to improve Path’s service quality by utilizing its extensive experience in successfully operating high traffic social networking services in Korea. In addition, Daum Kakao will incorporate internal resources to strengthen the level of connectivity Path’s user community experiences, while actively promoting the service in key international markets.
This acquisition marks the first of the many global business approaches Daum Kakao will take in the coming years. Along with acquisitions, Daum Kakao will explore investment and partnership opportunities around the world, building approaches that are best tailored to the target market.
