South Korean social giant Kakao strengthens its e-commerce business

According to Korean media reports, Kakao, South Korea's largest chat software , announced today that it plans to strengthen its e-commerce strength by placing a "shopping service" in front of Kakao Talk , and has now created a fourth tab "Kakao Shopping" for Kakao talk .

This combines the options such as gifts, manufacturers , shopping, live shopping , etc. that have been in the " More " tab until now , and presents them in a unified way in "Kakao Shopping."

A Kakao official explained , “ We will further strengthen the synergy between platforms and services, and between Kakao and Kakao Commers, and further expand the user experience of shopping, purchasing, and sending gifts within Kakao Talk . ”

Kakao Commers will select products with high satisfaction and good user reviews from the products operated by each service and display them on the shopping tab.

In addition, Kakao 's recent live shopping "Kakao Shopping Live" will appear at the top of the shopping tab. In order to cooperate with the launch of the shopping tab, the number of broadcasts will be increased from 1 to 2 times a day to more than 5 times . In the future, Kakao will also launch a personalized recommendation function based on personal shopping experience and taste .

As South Korea's largest telecommunications company, Kakao has grown rapidly in 2020 by riding the trend of online shopping during the pandemic . But in terms of shopping e-commerce , Kakao still has a long way to go.

Last year, Kakao 's sales from advertising, gift giving , and talk stores reached 1.178 trillion won. Under the pressure of Naver and Coupang , two major e-commerce giants, it is still very difficult for Kakao, a Korean IT giant, to stand out in the current Korean e-commerce market !

Kakao's chief investment officer said: " Kakao is a latecomer in the e-commerce market, but online shopping in South Korea now accounts for less than 50% of the retail industry, so the remaining market size is still quite large , and this is Kakao 's opportunity. "

Recently, there have been rumors in the Korean industry that Kakao is likely to acquire eBay Korea . However, facing eBay Korea, which operates Gmarket, Auction and G9 and has a certain market share, Kakao insiders said: "We are reviewing the acquisition of eBay Korea, but have not yet decided."

South Korea

Kakao

E-commerce business