The number of Kakao Talk users is expected to break the 100 million mark this month, three years and three months after its launch in 2010.

There were some 95 million Kakao Talk users as of June 4.

The number of Kakao Talk users exceeded 1 million just six months after the service was introduced and hit 10 million in April 2011. The number increased by 10 million every two to four months ever since.

The growth appeared to slow down for a while, but recently regained momentum after the service was launched in Southeast Asia.

The number hit 80 million in February and 90 million in May.

Kakao Talk began services in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam this year and is ratcheting up marketing in Southeast Asia including a television commercial featuring K-pop group Big Bang.

Kakao Talk was the most downloaded app on Google Play in Indonesia in April.

“Looking at the latest trends, we believe the number of users will surpass 100 million within this month,” said a Kakao Talk official.

A mobile messenger service doesn’t generate profits on its own, but using the great number of users, the operator can make money through paid services such as games.

Based on Kakao Talk’s success, Kakao Corp. started a game service which made its business profitable for the first time.

Kakao Corp. also launched a corporate advertising platform called Plus Friend and a paid service named Kakao Page where people can download comics, videos and music.

Among other mobile messenger services in Korea, NHN Corp.’s LINE saw the number of its users exceed 100 million in January, a year and seven months after its launch. LINE, however, was developed and supplied by NHN Corp.’s Japanese arm NHN LINE.


By Kim So-hyun
(sophie@heraldcorp.com)