Original data for this post taken from an article in Korean on Under The Radar, with additional editing from Hugh Yoon and Nathan Millard: Under The Radar, a prominent IT and Startup focused blog, recently published a top 10 list of venture backed enterprises in Korea. Not surprisingly, Kakao was placed number one in the list by a wide margin. In Korea, unlike most other venture ecosystems around the world, success is…

Last week Cookie Run, one of the most popular mobile games in Korea, celebrated its one year anniversary after a year that has been huge the game and the developer team behind it. The game has seen four consecutive quarters of outstanding revenue and two months ago released on LINE. Since this global release, Cookie Run had over 10 million downloads in Thailand alone, and the game continues to dominate in Asia…

A Google spokesperson has reached out to TechInAsia who also posted this news, and pointed out that “it hasn’t done or offered any of the things described in this post.” References  were initially sourced from ZDnet Korea (http://www.zdnet.co.kr/news/news_view.asp?artice_id=20140219145110). They have since taken down the articles used as reference for this article. We apologize for the inaccuracy of this post. Korea has long been a brand-obsessed shopping nation. Now Google aims to assist up-and-coming app…

Kakao Corp., developers of Korea’s favorite messaging service and social platform, Kakao Talk, will be listing its stock publicly next May. This follows the recent news that SundayToz also successfully listed its stock in August 2013, and demonstrates further growth in the domestic tech industry, that has been attracting much attention in the international press attention recently. What’s more interesting though is the potential opportunity that Facebook has presented following today’s news that…

Reuters: Asian chat services KakaoTalk, LINE and WeChat threaten to overturn the mobile order of things, usurping the role of Google Inc, Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Facebook Inc and telecoms carriers as gatekeeper to the consumer. Where these internet and telecoms giants once controlled the lucrative choke points of the industry, social messaging services are fast emerging as an alternative distribution channel for adverts, apps, and goods and services. For example, Tencent Holdings’ WeChat allows its more than…

Having achieved 18M downloads and the number 1 spot in 20 countries back in 2009 with Oven Break, the company’s first release, Korean game developer Devsisters has just released their global follow-up, Cookie Run, on the Line games platform. Despite early success with Oven Break, they struggled to maintain momentum and effectively withdrew from the global market, choosing to focus on their home turf in Korea. This was due struggles in maintaining…

[beLAUNCH2014] 부스·티켓 1월 특별 프로모션 마감 D-day 오는 5월 14~15일 양일간 서울 동대문디자인플라자에서 열리는 아시아 최대 테크 스타트업 축제 ‘beLAUNCH 2014’에 (주)카카오톡(공동대표 이석우, 이제범)의 이석우 대표가 스피커로 합류한다. 올해로 서비스 출시 5년차를 맞이한 카카오톡, 작년 7월 카카오톡 사용자수가 1억 명을 돌파하였다. 한국인의 73%가 스마트폰을 사용하며 이중 93%가 카카오톡 이용자이다. 지난해 6월 PC 버전을 출시한 이후 사용자가 꾸준히 증가하였으며 현재 다운로드 수 1700만에 달한다.지난 1월 셋째주 닐슨코리안클릭이 발표한 인스턴트 메신저 로그인 보고서에 따르면, 카카오톡PC의…

It’s been a while since we have reported any news from Kakao Talk, which developed mobile messenger KakaoTalk in 2012. The company now plans to make forays into the news services market, having established itself as one of the ‘new platforms’, which have been billed as one of the hot trends to watch for 2014. Kakao is preparing to provide news service on a curation format that enables users to take a…

Kakao Talk remains the premiere platform to access the exceptionally lucrative Korean gaming market, with examples such as the wildly popular `Angry Birds’ (coming soon) and `Candy Crush Saga’ (already available) among many other titles on the platform. KakaoTalk has emerged as the key channel for overseas game companies’ in Korea. Preparations are well under way for the release of Angry Birds in Q3 2013. It has also been rumored that EA…

We wrote previously about the current situation in the South Korean startup ecosystem. We said that the global startup capital is declining whereas the Korean venture world is seeing more fundings, more startups, and more enthusiasm. The rise of startups in Korea really started with KakaoTalk i n 2010, and since then we have seen $191 million US dollars raised in Korea (in 2013, up from $189 mil in 2012), and increase…

Howdy world citizens! Here are some morning reads for you today, good-to-go either on a train, a bus, over a cereal bowl (or another bowl, if you know what I mean)… whatever you desire, I supply ya. It’s Wednesday! Keep it up! Whatever you do, don’t be this guy. Weekend’s almost here! 1. Thomas Clayton: Bidding war between Tencent and LINE for Kakao Great article by Product Manager and Senior Writer at e27,…

Industry officials recently said that SK Communications, the social network service (SNS) affiliate of SK Group, is planning a ‘refashioning’ of its ailing service Cyworld. We all know that due to a decline in their earning, SK was forced to downsize in 2012. It had an operating loss of 10.3bil KRW in Q1, marking its sixth consecutive quarterly loss. However, market watchers believe that they are aiming to draw back its subscribers….

대표적인 기록 애플리케이션 기업 에버노트(Evernote) 필 리빈 (Phil Libin) CEO는 오늘 1일 서울 삼성동 코엑스 (COEX)에서 개최된 대한민국 테크 스타트업 컨퍼런스 ‘beLAUNCH 2013’에서 “100년 스타트업 만들기”이라는 주제로 기조연설을 진행했다. 또한, 뒤이어 열린 기자회견에서 국내 기업들과의 파트너쉽을 통한 비즈니스 강화 계획 발표와 함께, 카카오와의 전략적 제휴 조인식을 진행했다.   3일까지 열리는 ‘beLAUNCH 2013’은 혁신적인 테크, 스타트업 기업을 발굴하고, 스타트업 기업들의 미래와 비전을 제시기 위해 beSUCESS가 주최하는 컨퍼런스로, ‘레볼루션 (Revolution)’이라는 주제로 진행된다. 올해는 에버노트의…

What is KakaoTalk?

We mentioned in an earlier article regarding the acquisitions Daum and Kakao are making. Recently, the two Korean giants have acquired Dialoid and Sunnysoft respectively. Read more here.

beSUCCESS covers weekly news in Korea, 18 Feb.

Daum communications and Kakao will be making a series of startups acquisitions. This is to increase their competitive edge in terms of mobile services. The two Korean giants have acquired Dialoid and Sunnyloft respectively. What are the implications for startups and the startup ecosystem?

KakaoTalk, Korea’s leading social messaging service has launched a new mobile social album service that enables users to share their photos with their friends. This is the latest in Kakao’s strenuous diversification efforts, as it tries to keep up with Line, its major domestic competitor.

KakaoPage, a platform that allows its users to market and sell their creative contents (audio, video, text) was launched last week. What exactly is it? Is the goal of making one million “profit-earning” partners within three years along with the launch feasible?

지난 5일 이화여대 이삼봉홀에서 ‘2013 K-CUBE 스타트업 컨퍼런스’가 열렸다. 엄청난 2월의 폭설로 한 발짝 걷기조차 힘들었던 날, 많은 스타트업 CEO들과 관계자들이 대한민국 스타트업을 응원하기 위해 자리를 함께 했다. 특히 공식석상에서나 대학 강단이 아니면 만나기 힘들었던 ‘카카오’의 김범수 의장이 연사로 참여해 약 한 시간 반 가량의 시간동안 스타트업의 꿈을 응원하는 이야기를 전했다. 솔직하고 담대하게, 성공과 실패의 역사, 그리고 새로운 미래의 가치를 전했던 그의 이야기를 정리한다.