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KakaoTalk Challenges Apple and Google with New Digital Publishing Platform
The Korean-made messaging app KakaoTalk has over 70 million users and a social gaming platform running in a couple of countries. But the app doesn't stop there. KakaoTalk has launched Kakao Page as a media and content publishing platform for companies to distribute content. At first glance it looks a bit like the customer-relation management (CRM) function that WeChat, the huge Chinese messaging app, rolled out last year. That involves the likes of Starbucks and other major brands, along with celebrities and media outlets (including us), reaching out to consumers and fans sort of like many do already on Sina Weibo or Twitter. But KakaoTalk's new feature is more than that, and seems to be very much aimed at specific publishing and monetization. The Kakao Page platform is available only in Korean for the moment, but it's going further than WeChat's CRM tools to effectively make the Korean startup a sort of media company. It's aimed at content creators, and the published material will be paid for. As such, it will be more of a challenge to magazine subscriptions in Apple's NewsStand or Google Play.
The interface for publishers. Click to enlarge. Content producers can use either the new Kakao Pages web interface (pictured right) or the Kakao Partner app to create and organize their material for consumption on users' smartphones. The idea is that people will be more likely to use - and pay for - this kind of media within a fun social app than go out of their way to app stores to buy subscriptions. KakaoTalk's other major platform is social gaming, done in conjunction with numerous app developers. So far it has rolled out in South Korea and Japan. (Source: TheNextWeb)
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