Kakao Talk, a free messenger service provided by Kakao Corp., rose to third place in local brand value, research showed Monday, backed by its market share of more than 90 percent in the sector.

Kakao Talk's Brand Stock Top Index (BSTI) reached 915.4 points out of 1,000 in the second quarter, up a notch from a quarter earlier, the data compiled by market researcher Brand Stock showed.

BSTI is calculated by running a mock stock-trading test on about 900 brands and adding figures compiled from consumer surveys. A higher number indicates stronger brand power, with 1,000 being the maximum possible score.

Since its official launch in 2010, Kakao has become a leader in the mobile platform market, led by its messenger application along with its photo-sharing social network service, Kakao Story.

Contrary to Kakao Talk's rise, the brand value of Naver Corp., the operator of South Korea's most-visited search engine, plunged four notches over the cited period to 11th place, apparently due to Kakao's announced merger with Daum Communications Corp., the country's No. 2 portal operator.

While Naver's free messenger service, Line, attracted some 400 million users worldwide as of April, the South Korean market is still dominated by Kakao Talk.

Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy smartphone brand kept its top spot for the fourth consecutive year in the second quarter with 935.6 points, trailed by E-Mart Co., South Korea's largest discount chain operator, at 921.1 points.

Samsung's Ultra HD (UHD) TV was ranked No. 62. LG Electronics Inc.'s latest smartphone, the G3, came in at 89th place.

Incheon International Airport, the country's main gateway which was named the world's best airport for the ninth consecutive year in BSTI's annual airport service quality (ASQ) survey in 2014, came in fourth. (Yonhap)