Kakao Launches Full-Scale Digital Transformation of Traditional Markets with 20 City Mayors Nationwide

Kakao, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Small Enterprise and Market Service, the knowledge education platform MKYU, and representatives from 20 market merchant associations participating in Our Neighborhood Regular Market are taking a commemorative photo at the launch ceremony.

Kakao supports the digital transformation of traditional markets nationwide.

On the 12th, Kakao announced that it held the launch ceremony for the ‘Store Talk Channel Support’ project together with 20 market merchant associations selected in the first half of the ‘Our Neighborhood Regular Market’ contest, in collaboration with Kakao Impact, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Small Enterprise and Market Service, and the knowledge education platform MKYU.

‘Our Neighborhood Regular Market’ is part of the ‘Kakao Soshin Merchant Project,’ which supports merchants nationwide who run their businesses with conviction. This program helps traditional market merchants create loyal customers and communicate with them using KakaoTalk channels.

This year, Our Neighborhood Regular Market operates two projects targeting 100 markets: ‘Store Talk Channel Support’ and ‘Market Representative Talk Channel Support.’ The ‘Store Talk Channel Support’ project provides education so that traditional market merchants can communicate with customers through KakaoTalk channels. Last year, 11 markets nationwide participated in the Store Talk Channel Support project, opening KakaoTalk channels for a total of 572 stores and gaining 24,833 KakaoTalk channel friends, achieving significant results.

The ‘Market Representative Talk Channel Support’ project aims to strengthen digital communication capabilities within markets by creating representative KakaoTalk channels for the markets. About 80 markets will be recruited in the second half of this year, and a pilot project was conducted in five markets nationwide ahead of recruitment. Kakao plans to showcase more efficient digital education based on the know-how gained from the pilot project.

In June, Kakao and Kakao Impact accepted applications for participation in the ‘Store Talk Channel Support’ program from markets nationwide and selected 20 markets across Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon, Gangwon, Chungcheong, Jeolla, and Gyeongsang regions after screening.

At the launch ceremony, Kakao provided guidance on the overall operation of the Store Talk Channel project, introduced the education to be conducted in August and September this year, and shared outstanding cases from last year’s Talk Channel project. The heads of merchant associations representing each market also gave brief greetings and expressed their strong commitment to digital transformation through their remarks on participating in the education.

Yuk Sim-na, Head of ESG Business at Kakao, said, “This year’s Store Talk Channel Support project is twice the scale of last year’s support, and more than 1,000 traditional market merchants will start online communication with customers through digital transformation education throughout the year.” She added, “We also plan to carry out the Market Representative Talk Channel project in the second half of the year, aiming to support up to 100 markets this year, and we will strive to establish this as a leading digital transformation project for traditional markets in Korea.”

Meanwhile, at the launch ceremony, Kakao, Kakao Impact, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups also signed a business agreement to promote the ‘Digital Transformation Activation of Traditional Markets.’ The signing ceremony was attended by Kakao’s Yuk Sim-na, Head of ESG Business, Lee Dae-hee, Director of the Small Business Policy Office at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and other officials from both sides. Through this agreement, Kakao, Kakao Impact, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will collaborate on various initiatives to bridge the digital divide and strengthen digital capabilities within traditional markets.

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