Understanding Rich Messaging Apps
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Rich messaging apps have become hugely popular social platforms in Asia, led by KakaoTalk in Korea and LINE in Japan/Southeast Asia. These apps allow users to text but also integrate other services like games, commerce, and content discovery through their contact networks. KakaoTalk has 65 million users in Korea sending 4 billion messages daily, while LINE has over 70 million users, more than half from outside Japan. Telecom and internet companies are responding by partnering with or developing their own rich messaging apps to engage users and drive revenue from new services.
Understanding Rich Messaging Apps
- 1. Understanding Rich Messaging Apps @woosungahn
- 2. Rich messaging apps: new mobile social graphs built upon the phone’s actual contact list Free text/ call Uber emoticon App discovery
- 3. Korea: KakaoTalk , #1 social app in Korea 65M users, 27M DAU(over 50% of Korean population) in 2.5 years 4B messages/day now, 97% usage/install ratio Tencent invested $63M for 14% into Kakao Yahoo Japan took 50% Stake in Kakao Japan MM Membership Growth Since Launch
- 4. Japan: LINE, #1 social app in Japan and many SE Asia markets 70M users in 16 months, tracking to 100M by year end Over half of its users coming from outside Japan now Making $3.8M/mo by selling premium stickers Partnered with Japanese #2 carrier, KDDI Membership Growth Since Launch Source: NHN Japan
- 5. Becoming content platform beyond texting: Rich messaging apps allow your actual contacts to send you push notifications for content (game, commerce…) • Kakao’s Game platform has dominated the app store by contributing to 70% of both Top 10 Free and Grossing since its July 2012 launch • Anipang for Kakao: played by 2/3 of Korea population, $10M/mo • DragonFlight for Kakao: broke records of daily revenue, $1M+/day Source: AppAnnie, MoneyToday
- 6. Becoming content platform beyond texting Line already is #10 all grossing in the U.S. (#2 in Japan) by selling over 50 paid stickers by Coca Cola, Sanrio, Disney, etc. Initial game partners include Rovio, Konami, SquareEnix, gloops/Nexon, etc. Source: AppAnnie
- 7. Incumbents’ Response Carriers: SKT: #1 carrier in Korea, acquired TicToc, Kakao competitor, entering SE Asia markets to be the 1st mover KDDI: #2 carrier in Japan, partnered with Line Consumer Internet: Tencent: made their own rich messaging app, WeChat, recording 200M users Softbank’s Yahoo Japan: established Kakao Japan (50/50 JV) with Kakao Mobile Social Game Networks: GREE: took strategic minority stake in eBuddy (IM app with 30M users) DeNA: just debuted their own messaging app, Comm (#1 Top Free in Japan)
- 8. Global Alliance across Sectors U.S. Japan Korea China Softbank bought 70% of Sprint for $20B Tencent invested $63M for 14% into Kakao Softbank’s Yahoo Japan and Kakao made 50/50 JV Kakao Japan
- 9. Key Takeaways • Not just an Asian thing; Line is already #10 top all grossing in the U.S. • Further growth potential for younger generations (tablet/ iPod) with no telephony service • Carriers participating strategically not to lose text/voice biz (being disrupted already) • By far the best way to recommend apps Source: AppAnnie