Kakao Style aims to lead women’s fashion with metadata strategy

Kakao Style’s Chief Executive Officer, Seo Jung-hoon. [Courtesy of Kakao Style]

Kakao Style Corp., the fashion arm of the South Korean tech giant Kakao Corp., aims to become the leading women’s fashion platform based on its robust metadata capabilities that enable it to curate items tailored to individual preferences.

“We aim to offer products that let our customers showcase their uniqueness,” said Kakao Style’s Chief Executive Officer, Seo Jung-hoon, in a recent interview with the Maeil Business Newspaper.

Kakao Style’s fashion platform, Zigzag, began as a bookmark service for online fashion stores. This foundation cultivated devoted customer bases for each store on the platform, driving Zigzag’s growth.

“Our role involves suggesting products personalized for individuals and bridging the gap between businesses and customers. We possess the largest dataset in Korea for women’s shopping preferences, spanning from teenagers to those in their 30s. Our pride lies in providing unmatched convenience for customers to swiftly discover what they desire,” Seo explained.

Addressing distinctions from other “personalized” fashion platforms, Seo underscored Kakao Style’s technological prowess. “In the realm of tailored recommendations, technological finesse is pivotal. We originated as a tech company, with tech engineers comprising 60 percent of our workforce. Additionally, we believe our expertise in processing metadata sets us apart from any competition,” he emphasized.

Zigzag’s personalized recommendation algorithm is built upon four categories of datasets: user metadata such as age and style, behavioral data like purchase history, content metadata such as product information, and social-based data including the count of similar product purchases and ratings. Based on this data, they possess an algorithm that combines customer situations and behavioral intentions to predict the future.

Zigzag’s transaction volume has grown yearly by about 30 percent, reaching around 1.3 trillion won ($978 million) last year and expecting to exceed 1.6 trillion won this year. With its incorporation as a subsidiary of Kakao in 2021, synergy with the tech giant is also anticipated. “Preserving our company culture while leveraging Kakao’s positive elements is the task at hand as the leader of the company,” Seo said.

However, Kakao Style has yet to turn a profit. It posted an operating loss of 51.8 billion won, up by 36 percent from the previous year. The loss, however, is a controlled loss, according to the CEO. “We can generate profits, but we don’t want to go down that road through cost control or fee increases. Instead, we would rather choose to put more effort into efficient marketing and sustaining performance to maintain a healthy balance,” Seo said.