One year into its launch, Kakao’s mobile navigation app Kakao Navi has hosted 730 million trips totaling a combined distance of 20.6 billion kilometers, the South Korean mobile messenger giant said Tuesday.

This distance is equivalent to circumnavigating Earth 515,000 times, Kakao said as it laid out the app’s notable records and achievements to mark its first anniversary.


Kakao Navi was born through Kakao’s acquisition of the operator of local car navigation app Kim Gisa, or Driver Kim, last year. After undergoing updates and design changes, the app was reintroduced as Kakao Navi.

Kakao Navi currently has some 3.72 million monthly users, around 60 percent more users than the app had seen when it launched in February 2016, the company said.

“Despite fierce competition from competing mobile navigation apps, Kakao Navi is continuing to see growth in its users,” Kakao said in a statement. “We accredit this growth to our continued service updates and efforts to improve our in-app technologies to suit users.”

In addition, Kakao said that “home” and “workplace” were the top two most searched destination on Kakao Navi, signaling that users, even when traveling on familiar roads, rely on the app to access optimal driving routes that reflect real-time traffic situations.

Excluding these two destinations, Kakao Navi users searched most for Incheon Airport as their trip destination, followed by Gimpo Airport and Seoul Station. Starfield Hanam and Ikea Gwangmyeong came in fourth and fifth place, respectively, Kakao said.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)