A month ago, Rama found a new messaging application called Line. Line was created by Naver Japan, a subsidiary of Naver. Still from the East Asian region, Beom Soo Kim, former CEO of Naver, now leads Kakao Inc. a company with a messaging application product named KakaoTalk. Just like Line, KakaoTalk also has cute emoticons.

As written in Kompas Tekno, KakaoTalk was released two years ago as the first messaging application after smartphone is launched in South Korea. To date, KakaoTalk has about 42 millions registered users with 8 millions of them come from outside of South Korea.

Different from WhatsApp, KakaoTalk uses ID as an identity. So user privacy is guaranteed because there’s no need to spread phone numbers to communicate with others through KakaoTalk. However, users are still able to add friends using their phone numbers.

Another advantage compared to WhatsApp, group chatting on KakaoTalk is not limited to a set number of members.

Currently, KakaoTalk is also preparing a feature called VoiceTalk. Like Line, this feature allows user to make direct calls. Unfortunately, this feature can only be enjoyed by user who uses operator from Japan where this feature is still in testing phase.

Innovative Feature

In addition to the features that already exist on other messaging applications, KakaoTalk also has innovative features. Among them are “plus friend” feature which enables you to add artist, company or a particular brand as a friend to follow the news update from them. If you are fond of K-Pop, you would love to use this application as you can “plus friend” artists like Super Junior, Wonder Girls, 2PM and JYP Nation.

Also thanks to “plus friend”, KakaoTalk is able to work with various companies to do special offers such as what’s done by daily deals site. User who wants to make purchase can also use their credit to pay for the vouchers. Purchased coupons can also be sent to your friends to give as gifts.

Not all countries can enjoy the “plus friend” feature. But many artists can already be added as friends globally.

Availability

KakaoTalk is available on iPhone and Android. In addition, beta version of KakaoTalk application is available for BlackBerry users. At the moment there’s no plan to develop a Symbian version of this app.

Other than Korean, KakaoTalk is also available in 13 languages including Indonesian.

Other uniqueness of KakaoTalk is its attachment to its users. Try opening KakaoTalk’s Twitter account and see for yourself that the account answers a lot of questions from users. You’ll get lots of information from the account. So, are you interested to invite your friends to move to KakaoTalk?