KakaoTalk CEO Sirgoo delivered a session on the Future of Mobile at beLAUNCH 2013. Below are excerpts from his talk.

On competition and growth strategy

Although we have competitors, we have 5 billion messages being sent every day which is our competitive edge. KakaoTalk is the world’s first mobile social platform and has been a stepping stone for other services. We didn’t really know how we will evolve, we are planning to become the first world mobile social platform. We want to be mobile specific; we will be the very first ones. Facebook looks at mobile from webpage perspective. Mobile environment is very different, specific.

Social Algorithm: Game changer in the digital space

In the past we have been searching via web, to differentiate search results through defined search algorithms. You want to allow people to search for things via their social networks rather than searching only by word.

Via game Anipang, people could search through their friends and their networks, you could see their scores and that makes you stay up late night and beat their scores. Social algorithm is driven by acquisition, competition and interaction.

Afterwards we launched KakaoPage, the major differentiator  is the social algorithm. After you purchase something, it asks you who you want to share it with, so you can choose from one of your friends. They can discover content from friends..

On motivating employees

Financially we don’t have as many financial employees, but we have stock options. This works as a great motivation to work for a famous innovative company, some people may feel that they contribute to the growth of the company.

Main Drivers of Kakao Growth

I think experience of the founders, and the team is important. They had experience of how to develop startups into big companies. We had very good starting points with the founding members’ experience.

- Andrea Bajnokova and Vallabh Rao