KaKao

The KakaoTalk Apocrypha

 

KakaoTalk was the first mobile 'group chat' platform.

KakaoTalk was not the first mobile messenger. Paid messengers like WhatsApp already existed before the launch of KakaoTalk. People mostly pointed out that 'Fee-free' was vital to its explosive growth and phenomenal success. However, only a few people remembered that KakaoTalk was the first mobile messenger with the Group Chat feature. It is no exaggeration to say that the connection effect of mobile network speed, even unimaginable in the PC environment, was triggered in the Group ChatRoom. In particular, there were quite a few people among early smartphone users who switched their long-used number to the unified mobile dialing prefix 010. KakaoTalk’s friend suggestion and group chat features played an important role in social networking in Korea.

 

KakaoTalk aimed to retain '100,000' users in its early days?

Before the mobile era began in earnest, PC-based services with millions of users were barely counting. About three years before KakaoTalk was born, IWILAB (the forerunner of KakaoTalk) launched various PC-based services, which only secured 30,000 to 40,000 users. No one ever imagined that the messenger would become the 'national app' as it is now. Krews expected to achieve 100,000 subscribers, a goal that was seldom achieved at that time. By the way, KakaoTalk surpassed the goal in just five days and successfully retained one million subscribers six months after the launch. 

 

The Super-Speedy Bull Project

In 2011, when the number of KakaoTalk users surged, the company required significant server innovation. It was a time when many latecomers claimed themselves as KakaoTalk's main competitors. Rather than explaining 'the technological changes that would occur with server expansion, the company pondered how it could convey its solution in its users' words. (Whenever its competitors said, "KakaoTalk! Come out here!" "Clear the way!" or "Stop right there!") KakaoTalk named its project as the ‘Super-Speedy Bull Project’ that came from the then buzzword in Korea, 'Who raises a bull?' Hilariously, people thought that the project name 'Bull' brought up Lamborghini's image, a superfast sports car. Such word even traveled fast to reach Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., and KakaoTalk was sponsored with Lamborghini's car in its offline promotional event. It goes without saying that the core message of 'fast speed' was effectively delivered to users.

PS. The ‘Super-Speedy Bull Project’ was coined from the 'Kingdom of Far, Far Away' in the Shrek film.

 

Can we use the voice of the US President as a KakaoTalk alert sound?

During the speech given by the former US President Barack Obama at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in March 2012, he mentioned "KakaoTalk" while talking about communication through digital media. KakaoTalk, which had a cumulative number of subscribers of over 42 million at the time, sought a method to produce an alert sound made from former President Obama's voice. Vino, then CEO and international lawyer, searched every inch of the White House homepage and checked the related laws and regulations. And the company updated a new alert sound only within a week. This beep was available for about seven years until February 2019. 

 

The KakaoTalk server went down for the first time after the launch when the nation was blanketed with snow.

On December 17, 2010, thick snow piled up for the first time after KakaoTalk was released. On that day, when the entire metropolitan area turned white, 3 million KakaoTalk users began to transmit photos of the snowy landscape at once. It was such a shame that Kakao's 'small and cute' servers were all down. There were even rumors that Chinese hackers hacked Kakao. After two hours of struggle, the server team finally restored the messenger to normal operation. However, much to embarrassment during those hours, Krews had to cope with inquiries from the press and various organizations. Perhaps, today's KakaoTalk would have dealt with the situation skillfully while contemplating whether or not to turn on the snowing background in the chtroom. Still, the messenger in that winter was a mere child.

 

Why KakaoTalk voice message was once 3 minutes 39 seconds long

In the early days, the maximum length of KakaoTalk voice message was one minute. Some users sent feedbacks that 'One minute was too short.' As reviews of the same content accumulated steadily, the company began to cope with the issue actively. While repeatedly debating 'what would be the optimal length if we increased the volume of speech output,' one user's comment leaped out at Krews. "Shouldn't it be able to send at least one verse of a song?" When ascertaining the fact that there was no developmental limit to lengthening the voice message time, Krews agreed to make it possible to include a whole song instead of one verse if they were going to increase the time of a voice message at all. Since each piece had a different playing time, Krews had to decide which song they were measuring. After careful consideration, Psy's Gangnam Style recorded a smash hit, was chosen as a reference song. There were so many people wondering what stories lied behind the decision of the voice message time since it was not the 'evenly divided' time such as 3 minutes or 5 minutes. However, it transpired that quite a simple(?) story was hidden behind the decision.

 

P.S. Currently, You can record up to 5 minutes. The time extended to 5 minutes from the KakaoTalk version 4.1.3 on Android in February 2014.

Two reliefs, one tension

While KakaoTalk achieved exponential growth, the Korean IT majors launched mobile messengers one after another, which dominated the headlines such as 'Stop there, KakaoTalk,' and 'KakaoTalk's biggest competitors finally sallied.' Analysts from outside judged that a mere startup had met prominent opponents, but the KakaoTalk team seemed to be somewhat relieved inside. It could not log into the competing messengers unless they were linked with particular portal accounts, and their UI (User Interface) was excessively complex to differentiate them from KakaoTalk. Not surprisingly, those two services that tensed many beholders didn't last long. The service that made many Krews' really nervous' was the T-bleeped-out service. Launched in July 2011, the service was featured with the breakneck speed and reached 10 million downloads in just five months. However, Krews, who intuited the emergence of a strong enemy, coped with the situation by pushing ahead with Super-Speedy Bull Project without letting their guard down. People were enthusiastic about KakaoTalk with the lightning sign attached, and the company safely defended its title of the national messenger.