startup asia jakarta 2013: key elements that helped kakao grow

Sirgoo Lee

Key Elements that Helped KAKAO Grow

November 21, 2013

1. Learning from FailureSpeed

Listening to Users

Buru.com, 2007* Social Bookmarking Service

Wisia.com, 2008* Social Ranking Service

2. Top Talent Software Engineers

What Differentiates KAKAO from Others?: A large team of skilled and experienced software engineers helped

deploy reliable service from the beginning.

3. Open Culture

Horizontal CommunicationUse of English names

Brian

JB

ChloeBrandon

Gary

Jake

Joshua

Bob Robin

Sarah

MikeS Viktor

EvanTorea

Jim

InaWilliam

Janice

Ethan

Tod

Erica

Roy

ReannNamss

Justin

Reid

Cecilia

Jasen

SmithSummer

RyuPeterNatalieDean

Leon

ChrisTim

Yang

Shwn

LucasSean

TedToby

ArnoldMark

NillJess

JasonDannyDaniel

Jullie

Harry

Reed

Kevin

Jini

Donald

Tosi

Sun

Jeff Leslie

Karl Young

Scott

Ray

Helen

Jack

Jay

Amy HenryColin

MikeYoung K

Frank

Edan

AlexStella Carlos

Gilbert Thomas

SoaaJun

Johney JeremyLeo

Anne

Eugene

ClareHailey

April

Rna

Myu

Irene

Ellie

Open & Share

4. Strong User Loyalty

100 Improvements Project - Together with Users

20 times faster

Moving emoticons

Support for BlackBerry

Link between app & KaTalk

“KakaTalk” notification tone

Font size settings

Check my own profile

Change friends’ names

Verify by phone call

Search settings for my ID

Notification settings for each chatroom

Check the latest version

Find friends using index

Send larger video files

Set a name for each chatroom

Hide or block friends

Check the number of KaTalk friends

Send a message to multiple people

The 100 Improvements Project 2.0 is Now Open !

Debate with the Korea Communications Commission over “Free Call” in June 2012

Users voluntarily gathered together in cyberspace to show support for KAKAO

Currently, there is much debate over KakaoTalk’s Free Call (mVoIP) service. SK Telecom said that the service should not be introduced hastily, claiming that the service “will hinder the growth of the industry, cause inconvenience to users and undermine our national interests.” LG Uplus, which initially did not impose any restrictions on mVoIP, later changed its position saying that mVoIP services will be allowed only up to a limit. What's your take on this issue?

- What do they mean by “undermine our national interests”? Last time I checked, SK, KT and LG Uplus are not government-run enterprises. Their ridiculously expensive monthly plans are what undermine our national interests.

- Consumers make free calls using the data allowance that they already paid for. Mobile carriers have no right to intentionally restrict the data use by their customers. It’s time to defend our rights as customers.

- I’m currently using an unlimited data plan. I’m wondering why I should be restricted from using the data plan that I already paid for. I have no idea what traffic or network neutrality is. All I know is I need to get my rights back.

KAKAO NOW !

32M120M5.2B

KakaoTalk User Metrics

Active Users120 Million

Daily Messages5.2 Billion

Daily Unique Visitors 32 Million

Sum of SMS/MMS sentthru 3 major Korean telcos:

300 million

Game/Music/MediaSocialGraph

AdvertisersContents Creators

3rd Party

Benefit/Contents/Info

KakaoStoryPlus Friend

KakaoLink 2.0Digital ItemDigital item KakaoGame

Thank You