Kakao Holds 'Online Year-End Party' with 1,500 Attendees... Naver Also Hosts 'Online Company Dinner'

Photo by Kakao

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), year-end parties in the ICT industry have become predominantly 'online (non-face-to-face)' this year. Scenes of year-end parties held online, where people gather via video calls to drink and chat through online messaging to wrap up the year, are unfolding everywhere.

Kakao Holds Online Year-End Party

On the afternoon of the 23rd, Kakao held its annual year-end party, the 'Kakao Thank You Party (2020 Kakao THANK YOU PARTY),' online. Due to COVID-19, the large-scale event usually held at the headquarters building was replaced with an online format this year. The party, held on KakaoTV from 2 PM, lasted for an hour, with 1,500 Kakao employees joining simultaneously to enjoy the year-end celebration.

During the online year-end party, a '2020 Online Retrospective' video prepared in advance by Kakao employees was played, and in the 'CEO Talk' session, co-CEOs Yeo Min-soo and Cho Soo-yong appeared to express their gratitude for the employees' hard work throughout the year. The 'Thank You Award,' which recognizes employees who earned the trust of their colleagues this year, was also conducted online.

Kakao employees enjoyed the party atmosphere by communicating with each other through a real-time 'live chat window.' A Kakao representative said, "Due to the COVID-19 situation, we moved the annual event to a non-face-to-face format as it is. Although the event was shorter than the offline year-end party, the unique free-spirited atmosphere of Kakao was still felt."

Naver Holds Year-End Dinner via Video Conference

Naver also recently held its year-end dinner online. The purpose was to allow team members, who have not seen each other face-to-face due to long-term remote work, to communicate by seeing each other through video conferencing.

After finishing remote work on the 1st, employees of Naver Cloud's marketing team attended a dinner using Naver Works' video conferencing feature. Each person freely ordered food from home and gathered in front of their monitors to toast. The cost of the online dinner was billed through the company's electronic payment system, Workplace. Naver employees matched their dress code by wearing company uniforms and enjoyed the online dinner by exchanging greetings in the Naver Works team chat room.

During the video conference dinner, some amusing moments occurred. When the child of a team member, who is balancing remote work and childcare due to the daycare closure, appeared on the screen, colleagues greeted the child warmly. The online dinner, which lasted about an hour, ended with a closing toast online.

Geun-ju Han, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Naver Cloud, said, "In a non-face-to-face situation, employees tend to become isolated in their own work, so occasions like online dinners where team spirit can be felt are essential. Using video conferencing and other tools to remind employees that they are part of the same team is effective in increasing work concentration and generating ideas, so we plan to continue expanding non-face-to-face interactions."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.