Korean-made messaging app KakaoTalk is now ready to expand to other countries more aggressively. The reason? KakaoTalk is now profitable. In particular, the company tells us that it’ll focus on Android – and make a big push into Indonesia, complete with full payment support for its extra services.
We talked to Yujin Sohn, the global business development VP of KakaoTalk, to discuss the company’s latest milestones and to hear in detail about its business model. Yujin revealed that KakaoTalk reached break-even point in September, and now the company is profitable. She explained that this latest milestone came a few months earlier than expected, largely due to the big success of the game platform which was launched in late July.
With this latest milestone achieved, the company will now begin its expansion program to other countries more aggressively. She adds:
Being a startup with limited resources, we had to make the right decision [about] where to focus and when. We thought it [was] too risky to expand too aggressively before we solidified our business models and proved to ourselves that we could be financially on our own feet. Without focus, we could’ve lost everything.
In Indonesia, KakaoTalk is specifically aiming to support a payment carrier system and launch more data packages with carriers. At the moment KakaoTalk is included in Telkomsel’s Opera Mini packet, Chat and Share package, and Axis’ Gaul package. It also intends to launch emoticons localized to Indonesians’ culture, and even plans to have K-Pop themed emoticons to capitalize on the genre’s popularity in Indonesia.
KakaoTalk, Blackberry, and Indonesia
KakaoTalk’s Yujin Sohn at the MobileAsiaExpo in Shanghai.
Despite its ups and downs, Indonesians still love their Blackberry phones. I asked Yujin why there are some KakaoTalk features that are not yet available on the Blackberry platform, such as its free calling service. This feature can help propel KakaoTalk above its other contenders such as Line and WeChat in Indonesia because they also don’t provide the feature for Blackberry fans. Yujin said that it is simply a bit harder for the team to build that particular feature for RIM’s platform. She also acknowledged the importance of supporting the Blackberry platform in Indonesia, and that they will make because of that, they have made the chat app available not only for higher end Blackberry models, but also the Blackberry Curve line which is the most widely used model in Indonesia.
KakaoTalk’s main focus so far is on the Android platform, and then iOS. This is because 70 percent of Korean KakaoTalk users, which is the biggest KakaoTalk user nation, are on Android.
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So, if KakaoTalk brings all its features to Indonesia, what can users expect?
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