[Reporter’s Notebook] Daum and Kakao... Remembering That Day 10 Years Ago

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Choi] October 1, 2014. The day the platform combining portal Daum and mobile messenger giant Kakao was launched. At the time, Daum Kakao announced a vision of "New Connection, New World," aiming to pioneer a new realm as a mobile life platform pioneer. It was the largest merger in the domestic IT industry and signaled a major change in the internet company landscape led by Naver, and I vividly remember feeling an inexplicable excitement at the scene.

Nearly 10 years have passed since then. KakaoTalk has become the national messenger used by 50 million people. Leveraging its overwhelming influence, Kakao has extended its reach into various fields such as taxis, payments, banking, and entertainment. The number of domestic affiliates, which was only 16 in 2013, reached 187 as of last June. Within the vast Kakao kingdom, users now enjoy conveniences such as no longer having to wait for a 'gilbbang' taxi that you would have to flag down on the street. Compared to the vision set forth in 2014, there have been some achievements.

However, as an operator of a national service, infrastructure investment and social responsibility have not kept pace with the rapid growth. In the first half of this year, Kakao's server and other machinery asset size was 271.2 billion KRW, about half that of Naver. Even excluding Naver's own data center assets in Chuncheon, the gap is significant. While Kakao's revenue increased about sevenfold from 2014 to last year, the scale of infrastructure assets such as servers only grew 2.5 times.

There have been several moments to reflect. Kakao, which became a large business group in 2016, was deregistered due to relaxed designation conditions but was re-designated in 2019. Although it had long grown to a size comparable to large corporations, there was a lack of consideration for corresponding social responsibility. It responded reactively at times, such as withdrawing plans after controversies over entering hair salon and flower delivery businesses that infringed on local markets, and retracting taxi fare increases after opposition.

The continuity and stability of platform services are directly linked to a company's survival. Kakao, which dreamed of a new world by connecting everything, loses its meaning if that connection is broken. All IT systems can face human errors as well as force majeure incidents at any time. Kakao must return to its original intention. It is time to consider what the basic conditions are to realize the vision it proudly announced and whether it is fulfilling responsibilities commensurate with its social influence and corporate scale.

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