[Kakao] Sirgoo Lee, co-CEO of Kakao, Delivers Keynote Speech at MWC 2014
- Sirgoo Lee, co-CEO of Kakao becomes the first CEO from a Korean startup to deliver keynote speech at MWC
- Emphasizes innovation and building shared value through cooperation, in a speech examining ‘Disruption or Innovation?’
[Seoul, Korea - February 24, 2014] “We continuously strive for innovation by creating new value through a symbiotic mobile ecosystem.”
Sirgoo Lee, co-CEO of Kakao, announced during his keynote speech on February 24th at the Mobile World Congress 2014, that shared value created through collaboration and cooperation is what cultivates innovation. He explained that Kakao has evolved into a mobile platform by incorporating user feedback and partnering with key players in the industry. He then went on to underline that greater innovation could be achieved through collaboration between telecoms and mobile service companies.
Sirgoo Lee, the first CEO of a Korean startup company to deliver a keynote session at MWC, presented at the second session of the Congress, titled ‘Mobile, Disrupted; Challenging the State of Play.’ Evoking the theme of ‘Disruption or Innovation,’ Lee asserted the mobile industry is being innovated—rather than disrupted—by encouraging cooperation models that benefits multiple players.
“KakaoTalk has solidified its position as an indispensable app in Korea with more than 93% of the nation’s population communicating through the service. We achieved this by providing more than just messaging. The addition of features like emoticons, multimedia sharing, group chat, and free voice call built richer mobile lives for our users,” said Lee, and continued, “Due to the high usage of the messenger, KakaoTalk gained a powerful social graph, through which we were able to evolve into the world’s first mobile social platform that has generated a meaningful level of profit.”
Kakao continuously asks the question “How do we create value?” instead of “What will we sell?” Lee emphasized Kakao’s belief in collaboration, deciding against drawing a line between “You” and “I” or “users” and “partners” as separate, opposing parties. Lee continued, “New value has to be created through the cooperation of users and partners, and this type of collaborative business model will begin to receive more focus in the future” and added “Let’s all join hands to create new shared value,” delivering a strong will for partnerships and cooperation, which captured the interest of the keynote audience.
Sirgoo Lee’s presentation was lauded for delivering sophisticated insight on the state of the mobile industry. Referring to examples spanning classic art, psychology, and modern pictograms, Sirgoo delivered insights on how messaging was able to transform differently by working as one with users and partners. The presentation concluded with the display of a painting titled ‘Family and Children at an Orchard’ by a Korean artist Lee Jung-seop. The subject of the painting is a family working together to pick mandarins, an image that powerfully underlines Kakao’s vision for mobile service providers, Telco’s, and manufacturers to work closely together within the mobile universe.
The Mobile World Congress, now in its 28th year, is the world's largest conference for mobile operators and device manufacturers, and is organized by the GSMA, an alliance of mobile operators and other key players in the mobile ecosystem. Taking place in Barcelona, Spain, the conference is attended by more than 72,000 industry players from around the world.
As the keynote speakers have traditionally been CEOs of mobile operators, the extension of an invitation to Lee demonstrates the magnitude of Kakao’s impact on the mobile industry and technology innovation as a whole.
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[Appendix 1: Sirgoo Lee’s Keynote Session]
Time: Monday, February 24th 2014/ 11:15 am~ 12:4 pm
Location: Barcelona Spain, Fira Gran Via (MWC 2014 Venue) Hall 4, Auditorium1
Keynote Session: Keynote 2: Mobile, Disrupted, Challenging the State of Play
Keynote Speakers: Hans-Holger Albrecht, CEO of Millicom
Mats Granryd, CEO of Tele2
Jo Lunder, CEO of VimpleCom
Jan Koum, CEO of WhatsApp
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