The initial release of KakaoStory reached 5 million subscribers in three days and then reached 9.2 million in one week later. Market research Agency Nielsen KoreanClick stated that 944 million users log into KakaoStory at least once a day. With the success of its launch, KakaoStory became more popular than Facebook and became the preferred choice of social media in Korea.Hankook Research conducted a survey on 9,381 people between the age of 13 to 69 and found that 51.8 percent of participants use KakaoStory as their most used social media sites. In Korea, the popularity of KakaoStory and Facebook has been nearly the same in the preceding year, however KoreanClick's statistical data also show KakaoStory's popularity increased by 23.9 percent among social net site users to 55.4 percent.
What is interesting about the growth of KakoStory is the elderly who are engaging in the site. The KISDI reported that unlike young users who want to expose themselves, the elderly are more focused on using KakoStory to connect with their families.
The feature of KakaoTalk, in KakaoStory, has boosted its popularity in Korea.
Korea's mobile service providers do not have unlimited texting plans (Kim, Sunhyung), unlike in America where phone providers do give the option of unlimited texting plans. As a result, texting can become very expensive for Korean citizens.
KakaoStory has another feature called Kakaotalk on the site itself. KakaoTalk is a messaging or texting service that allows users to text and call other Kakao users for free. There are more than 52.55 million mobile phone users in Korea. With access to free texts and phone call, KakaoStory boosted in popularity.
KakaoGame bringing other Kakao users to
Kakao breakthrough led them to the development of KakaoGame which offers games on their platform. Kakaogame is linked to the user KakaoStory or Kakotalk account and connect with friends to play games against each other. With the launch of 10 game titles published, it was a success as 82 million people download games and earned 51 million users playing against each other.
Anipang, one of the 10 launched game, was the favorite among the users. Anipang is a competitive and fast pace puzzle game which the user has to line up three or more identical animals to remove them from the screen. What made Anipang boost Kakao in fame was the game inclusion of other users. In the game, there is a time limit, known as hearts, that would last for one minute. The game would start with five hearts and once they are gone they need to wait eight minutes or buy the hearts to replenish them.Instead of buying the hearts, Anipang players can send hearts or earn hearts by inviting their friends or sending hearts to them. As a result, the more friends you have, the more hearts you will earn. The game is not about competition but rather a way of making new friends and experiencing a great time. A lot of users had a great time of meeting new people and bonding with them as they try to beat each other's high score.
The uses of KakaoStory in sharing photo and text experience.
KakaoStory is a photo and text sharing experience that allows users to connect with friends. Just like other social media website, KakaoStory has similar characteristics, such as using custom design screen filters and updating user's status, that make the experience well known to others, but it has its own unique features that set itself apart from the rest.
One of KakaoStory unique features is having a privacy and note function. When KakaoStory users upload a photo, they have the option to make it either public or private to other users. The note function serves as a text only post that can be used as a mini blog giving more variety to users. One of the functionality like about KakaoStory is that there are no limits of how many friends can join in a group chat and maintain privacy at the same time.Korean businesses use of Facebook to target audience instead of using KakaoStory.
In Korean business, they avoid using Korean based social network as it is evident only 15% of business use it. According to Socialbakers, Facebook in South Korea has over 825 million users who uses the site regularly. As a result, companies want to target their audience and use the media to their advantage. Despite KakaoStory being really popular in Korea, Facebook has a significant impact in business. As Facebook has evolved over the years, it is trumping over previous social network site, such as Cyworld, and gaining in popularity among users. According to KPR Social Communication Research Lab, 87.1% of Korean organization are using Facebook and it suggests that Facebook's mob
ile and media capable appealed to companies and institution.
KakaoStory popularity in America is overshadowed by Facebook.
According to Pew Research Center, Facebook is the most popular choice of social media in America; despite KakaoStory being available on the Android and Iphone app store in America. There are approximate 500,000 users on Kakaostory in America versus 1.19 billion users on Facebook.The reason for the low usage rate is the lack of advertisement and usage of it, in the United States.
The first I thing I noticed you did really well was finding graphics that related to your text. All the graphics were placed nicely next to the text it related to, with the first picture in the first paragraph. The graph is clear and easy to read. The values are placed correctly next to the bars.
ReplyDeleteThe headline is explanatory, however, it could be shortened. Maybe instead of saying "...beating rivals such as Facebook" you can just say "beating out Facebook" since the study is only comparing KaKao and Facebook.
I know inserting pictures compresses the text, but in some places like the first two paragraphs, and towards the end of the blog you could have split of the paragraphs to make it less seem crowded.
Great job attaching more than just one link to the article. You could have just explained the app’s functions but instead you also attached a link to provide even more information if desired by the reader.
The study itself is interesting because I didn’t think an app that combines texting, gaming, and social media would be more successful than an app like Facebook. With Facebook, the company is able to really focus on improving specific uses of their app. For example, news feed, profile layout, and display. I would think an app like KaKao would fall short because there are too many aspects of the app the company has to focus on which leaves less room for improvements in specific categories of the app. Also, after developing the app, Facebook later created a separate messaging app. So, in their case, they actually separated two functions Facebook offers. Maybe it was a mistake to separate the app into two since KaKao seems to be more successful. Also, Facebook’s games used to be really popular. I remember getting invitations to play Farmville all the time. Now, the games have been developed into apps on the Appstore. If we take a step back we actually realize Facebook has done exactly the opposite of what KaKao is.
When I was reading your blog you stated the results in the beginning which was good, but I would have also like to know more about what the app actually does rather than it’s features. Here’s another article on KaKao: http://www.inaglobal.fr/en/telecommunications/article/kakaotalk-korean-messaging-app-turned-social-phenomenon