From Messaging to Games: KakaoTalk Starts Game Center for Korea

Photo: Yahoo News Korea

When we last spoke to Kakao at Mobile Asia Expo in Shanghai, they alluded to a ‘Game Center’ that was coming in a few weeks time. And just yesterday the Korean company’s game center went live, at least as a beta for Korean users. You can view it at kakao.com/game, and so far its for Android only, although an iPhone version is coming soon as well.

There are a number of games currently available, with titles from domestic developers like WeMade Entertainment and NextApps. Besides this gaming platform, the company also plans to monetize in other areas like advertising and media content, virtual items, and mobile commerce.

What’s interesting here is that this is the second messaging platform we have seen become the base for a game platform, the first one being NHN Japan’s Line application which recently expanded to be not just a game platform, but even more besides. We’ve made contact with Kakao today and are hoping to hear more details about its Game Center plans soon.

In other Kakao news, yesterday Daily Social pointed out that Indonesian carrier Telkomsel is now offering an unlimited-use package for four popular apps, including KakaoTalk. The others are Opera Mini, WhatsApp, and the afore-mentioned Line.

[Via campaignasia and Mark Ranson, image from Yahoo News Korea]