Kakao Corp. announced its plan to launch KakaoTalk with a new feature for business purposes. The company said that the upgrade would be similar to the “Slack” messaging service operating in the U.S.
Kakao Corp. is the operator of South Korea’s leading mobile messenger app KakaoTalk.
Kakao’s subsidiary, Kakao Enterprise, reportedly aims to introduce its new corporate messenger, which is still under development. The affiliate provides artificial intelligence (AI)-based platform service to various enterprises.
According to the company, its goal is to enable users to carry out their work in a user-friendly messenger user interface. The subsidiary added that the core principle in developing the KakaoTalk service is for conducting business meetings, and also for the transfer and approval of files.
A Kakao official said that KakaoTalk’s upgrade would strengthen its portfolio as it enters the office space. With the messenger’s advancement, the platform can link to business programs that companies use. The official added that the company would also further reinforce the security of its app.
Kakao Enterprise became famous as the company that created the work messenger app “Agit,” which launched in 2016. Currently, 20,000 companies benefit from the messaging platform.
Market Competition
The Korean business messenger market comprises of other strong players, such as JANDI. Considered as a rival, Toss Lab Inc., a South Korean startup, created JANDI as an office messaging platform for use in Asia.
Startups in Korea usually employ the Slack, a Silicon Valley office messaging platform. However, Korean users believe that Slack does not reflect the views of the local IT industry.
One major disadvantage is that the service does not provide Slack in the Korean language. Users find it difficult to navigate as opposed to the KakaoTalk’s user interface.
Kakao said that they are in the process of continuously supplementing their services and completing their corporate messenger. The company added that it would provide collaboration tools for companies that can use as easily as KakaoTalk.
