There’s no doubt that South Korea-based Kakao has a hit on their hands with KakaoTalk. The popular messaging app recently joined with Evernote to bring more shareable content to users and also recently launched social gaming in Indonesia and Vietnam.
The cross-platform app is getting so popular that it’s actually about to cross the 90 million user mark according to a recent report from TechinAsia. The app currently has a total of 89 million users, most of which are based in the app’s home country.
KakaoTalk’s appeal comes from a variety of features embedded within the app, including stickers and other shareable content. Kakao is looking to differentiate itself from competitors in the Asian market such as LINE and WeChat. Japan’s LINE has a total of 150 million users, while China’s WeChat has 300 million users, 40 million of which are outside China.
As the popularity of VoIP and messaging apps continue to grow, the competition will inevitably increase, and it’s going to be the innovations within that will make each app able to stand on its own.