One can now watch videos and make video calls on KakaoTalk. It is being watched with keen interest because DaumKakao is challenging video contents distribution that foreign platforms are leading such as Facebook and Youtube.
DaumKakao (CEO Choi Sae Hoon and Lee Suk Woo) announced on the 16th that it is releasing mobile social video service called ‘KakaoTV’.
KakaoTV is a video service where one can share video contents and enjoy them with a friend through a messenger and SNS such as KakaoTalk and KakaoStory.
Its greatest characteristic is its social function which allows friends to watch videos while chatting in a KakaoTalk chat room. Videos that one wants to watch with friends can be done by using a function called ‘Watching in a chat room’.
The function provides variety of videos such as clips from broadcastings, free movie VoD, web dramas, and live broadcasting that are provided by 3 ground wave networks, CJ E&M, and 4 cable channels.
It also has monopolized contents. DaumKakao is introducing ‘Mnet Digital Rap’ and ‘’ on the 1st of July where many celebrities freely talk about their life stories. There is also a new change where it added a video call called ‘FaceTalk’ to KakaoTalk. DaumKakao and KakaoTV introduced ‘FaceTalk’ function which allows friends to enjoy video call together. It is also providing editing function which backs up and restores messages from KakaoTalk.
KakaoTalk also added ‘Bankmoney Button’ to a menu in a chat room which allows one to wire transfer money through Bank Wallet Kakao.
Its strategy is to focus mobile services such as videos, video calls, banking, and search into KakaoTalk. It is a similar move as Facebook in which it expanded its services centered on SNS. Especially Korea’s video market is an area where much profits are expected since the market size will surpass 893 billion dollars (1 trillion KRW) centered on advertisements. Facebook, Naver, and AfricaTV are being competitive centered on Youtube.
According to Nielsen Korean Click, number of Youtube’s mobile visitors during month of May surpassed 20.21 million people and its stay time is also 352 minutes. Compared to PC visitors of 11.48 million people and stay time of 34 minutes, the differences are twice and 10 times respectively. It is indicating that video consumption is a general trend in a mobile world.
It is also an interesting thing to see how much DaumKakao will be able to catch up after Youtube and Naver by KakaoTalk. Mobile visitors of Daum TVpot is 1.92 million dollars, which comes very short of Youtube’s (20.21 million people), Naver’s (5.32 million people), and Africa TV’s (1.92 million people) visitors.
“KakaoTV is a service that has both social network and communication that are main things in this mobile generation. We are going to continuously expand our video contents to make us as the main platform in the world.” Team leader Cho Han Kyu of DaumKakao’s Contents Business Department said about DaumKakao’s high hope on KakaoTV in the future.
Staff Reporter Lee, Kyungmin | kmlee@etnews.com