Kakao is positioning KakaoTalk as the core service of its artificial intelligence (AI) strategy. With nearly 50 million users, the company aims to connect actual services such as commerce, reservations, and payments, allowing AI to translate user requests into actions.
As of September 11, industry sources indicate that Kakao is expanding the integration of AI with key services like commerce, reservations, and payments through KakaoTalk.
Kakao is broadening its product range to include fresh produce and home appliances while also utilizing agentic AI to link frequently used areas such as commerce, reservations, travel, and payments to actual service usage.
The decision to center KakaoTalk in its AI strategy is seen as a way to connect its large user base to real service transactions. By applying AI within KakaoTalk rather than through a separate app, the company can accelerate service expansion and facilitate connections with existing businesses in advertising, commerce, and payments.
Changes are already evident in commerce. Kakao's flagship commerce service, Gift Giving, has seen growth not only in sending products to others but also in self-purchases.
In the first quarter of this year, the transaction volume for self-purchases in Gift Giving increased by 53% compared to the same period last year, while the second quarter saw a 39% rise. The total transaction volume for Kakao's Talk Business commerce, including Gift Giving and Talk Deals, reached 2.7 trillion won in the second quarter, marking a 9% increase year-on-year. Kakao is also enhancing its product offerings, focusing on high-demand categories like fresh produce and home appliances.
In line with this, Kakao has recently begun hiring logistics personnel for direct purchasing of fresh produce. These positions will handle demand forecasting, ordering, inventory management, shipping, delivery, and claims response. Kakao has stated that this hiring is not aimed at expanding into early morning delivery or its own logistics business but is intended to improve the efficiency and sophistication of existing fresh produce delivery operations.
A Kakao representative said, "We have already been directly purchasing and delivering some fresh produce, and this hiring is part of an organizational restructuring to enhance efficiency and operational sophistication in related tasks."
Kakao is leveraging KakaoTalk as a central channel to connect AI with actual services. In its second-quarter earnings report, the company announced plans to apply agentic AI in frequently used areas such as commerce, reservations, travel, and payments. This approach goes beyond merely answering user inquiries; it aims to understand intent and context to facilitate actual service usage.
Kakao has already integrated Gift Giving, KakaoMap, Talk Calendar, and Melon with 'ChatGPT for Kakao' and is expanding its connections with external businesses through Kakao Tools. The government’s ongoing 'Everyone's AI' initiative also utilizes KakaoTalk as a primary access point instead of a separate app.
Kakao's AI strategy focuses not only on model performance competition but also on connecting its established KakaoTalk user base with existing services in commerce and payments. The goal is to enhance service delivery from finding user-intended services to facilitating orders, reservations, and payments, thereby increasing actual service usage and transactions within KakaoTalk.
As the structure of AI connecting actual service usage within KakaoTalk becomes established, it is expected to broaden the intersection of commerce, advertising, payments, and AI in existing businesses.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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