Naver, Kakao ramping up efforts to increase user engagement

[Courtesy of Naver and Kakao]

Naver Corp. and Kakao Corp., South Korea’s two largest platform companies, are intensifying their efforts to boost user engagement by introducing new services that cater to users’ daily activities and provide essential information.

With a growing number of new platform services threatening their leading position, Naver and Kakao are implementing robust strategies to retain users through a powerful “lock-in effect” and prevent them from being lured away by emerging competition.

Last Friday, KakaoTalk introduced a notification window on its main screen that provides alerts and relevant information about nationwide heavy rain warnings. This feature, introduced in May as a new category aimed at delivering useful information to KakaoTalk users, marked the first integration of weather information with the Daum News tab on KakaoTalk.

Naver, on the other hand, recently launched the beta version of “Naver Talk,” a conversational service similar to Open Chat, an interest-based anonymous chat service, and Cafe Talk, which enables conversations between Naver Cafe members. Naver plans to update this feature on the Naver PC version as early as next month.

Furthermore, Naver is strengthening its presence in the popular content trend of short-form videos by creating its own short-form video brand called “Clip.” In the third quarter, Naver has plans to prominently feature its short-form video service in the Naver app’s redesign.

In May, Kakao introduced “Open Chat” as a separate tab, offering a community service based on non-acquaintance connections. Recently, Kakao has also emphasized its position in “convenient shopping” by launching LuX within the KakaoTalk app, allowing users to send luxury gifts worth tens of millions of won.