SEOUL, KOREA - Kakao, the provider of KakaoTalk, a mobile messaging application and global mobile social platform based in South Korea, announced that on July 30, the company will be celebrating the two-year anniversary of its mobile social gaming platform, KakaoGame.
As the first mobile social gaming platform with roots in mobile messaging, KakaoGame is a pioneer in the space and has ignited the trend of integrating social gaming within mobile messengers. In the past two years, KakaoGame has brought significant changes to the perception of mobile gaming and its user demographic, and spearheaded the growth of the mobile gaming industry.
When KakaoGame launched on July 30, 2012, mobile gaming was regarded as a minor pastime activity mainly enjoyed by those in their teens and twenties. Today, it's commonplace to spot parents and even grandparents playing mobile games, and even inviting their friends and families to play along with them. Through intricately weaving in KakaoTalk’s social network into mobile games, KakaoGame has attracted a wider user base to mobile gaming than any other mobile platform.
Currently, KakaoGame offers 520 games in partnership with more than 230 developers. More than 520 million accumulated subscriptions have been recorded for these games, and each month, more than 20 million users, or 40 percent of the entire Korean population, play games via Kakao. Moreover, an average player visits KakaoGame 5.2 times a week, signifying how mobile gaming has now become a deeply rooted part of Korea's everyday culture.
Based on this growth, accumulated sales of KakaoGame surpassed KRW 560 million (~USD 560 thousand) in the first half of 2014, recording a 60 percent growth year-over-year. Naturally, this has also driven explosive growth for the entire mobile gaming industry in Korea. In 2011, before the launch of KakaoGame, the mobile game market in Korea was a relatively small market, valued at KRW 423 billion (~USD 423 million). By 2013, following the launch of the platform in 2012, this grew to KRW 1.2 trillion (~USD 1.2 billion), rising to become a significant cultural content business in the country.
"As KakaoGame reigns as the market leader and continues to advance the growth of the gaming population and industry, we are focused on delivering the highest quality and most captivating gaming experience to our users,” said Kane Lee, International PR Team Leader from Kakao. "We look forward to collaborating with our existing and new partners around the world to introduce more exciting titles to our Kakao gamers in the most convenient manner."
