KaKao

- As part of the “Credit for Credo Campaign,” business owners will receive support for digital communication
- Supports KakaoTalk Channel messaging fees to improve small business owner’s digital competitiveness
- Any personal or corporate business with annual sales (as reported to the National Tax Service) of 1 billion KRW or less can apply

[August 3, 2022] Small business owners can now utilize KakaoTalk’s marketing tools.
Kakao (Co-CEOs Namkoong Whon, Hong Euntaek) announced their “Kakao Credit for Credo Support Benefits” program, which will help small business owners gain competitiveness through digital marketing.

The “Kakao Credit for Credo Support Benefits” helps South Korea’s small business owners secure regular customers and execute marketing activities through the KakaoTalk Channel service by supporting them with KakaoTalk Channel messaging fees.

In April, Kakao announced the Kakao Community’s coexistence plan, which aims to contribute to building a sustainable society, by implementing a coexistence fund worth 100 billion KRW over the next five years for small business owners and regional partners, and launched the “Kakao Credit for Credo Campaign” which aims at supporting merchants in Korea who run their business with strong beliefs. The “Kakao Credit for Credo Support Benefits” is part of the “Kakao Credit for Credo Campaign.” 

The application process is simple. Add the “Kakao Credit for Credo Support Center” from the KakaoTalk Channel, press the Apply button in the channel’s chatroom and complete the survey. Application can also be submitted in the Small Business Support webpage in the Kakao Business website, which also provides more information on how the project can be used to benefit small business owners.

* Small Business Support webpage in the Kakao Business website: https://business.kakao.com/info/smb/

Any personal or corporate business with annual sales (as reported to the National Tax Service) of 1 billion KRW or less can apply. Once the application process is completed, a fund of 300,000 KRW will be charged into the wallet of the business’ KakaoTalk Channel account.

300,000 KRW can be used to send 12,000 to 18,000 channel messages. If the business has around 1,000 friends, that business can send one message a month for more than a year. The funds will greatly benefit small business owners who have needs for digital marketing but are hesitant to use digital marketing due to cost or accessibility issues. 

To further support small business owners who are making the leap to digitizing their business, Kakao plans to provide a special gift to the first 10,000 small business owners who apply for the funds.

Moreover, this small business owner support benefit is not a one-and-done project but will become a long-term coexistence program that will continuously support more small business owners in the future. The first round of applications will be accepted until the end of the year, and feedback received from small business owners will be used to make improvements.

Meanwhile, Kakao is offering a wide variety of programs as part of the Kakao Credit for Credo Project to assist small business owner’s digital communications as contactless activities and digitization gain momentum amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In June, a four-party agreement was executed with Kakao Impact, the online knowledge training platform MKYU, and the Shinyoung Market Merchants Association to launch the “Our Local Market” program, the first of many Credit for Credo projects to be implemented. 

Support for resource, training, marketing, and promotion started on August 1 in Shinyoung Market as a pilot program to strengthen KakaoTalk Channel-based digital marketing. A digital tutor goes to the traditional market for eight weeks to meet merchants face to face and provide digital training. 

Kakao believes the Our Local Market program will help familiarize traditional market merchants with the digital media and expect merchants to easily build relationships and communicate with regular customers through KakaoTalk. 

Kakao co-CEO Hong Euntaek said “this benefit plan is for small business owners in Korea who operate their business with conviction, so that they can communicate with their customer through the digital medium.” He also added that “Kakao will introduce a variety of support programs for traditional markets and small business owners so that each party can gather their competencies to grow and develop collectively.” (The End)