There is a company which is well known among people that has grown by leaps and bounds. It is Kakao, which launched “Kakao Talk,” an instant messenger service, on March 18, 2010. So far, starting with Kakao Talk, the Kakao company has a dominant position among ap\-plications that are used in real life with offerings like Kakao taxi, subway, bus and remittance apps. Recently, Kakao Friends, which is Kakao Talk's emoticon, has become a sensation. As a result of this sensation, daily supplies associated with Kakao Friends have been out of stock. Also, when a Kakao Friends shop newly opened in Gangnam, there was a line of people wait\-ing at the Gangnam Station exit number 10 to visit the Kakao Friends shop. Our excitement over the Kakao company's applications and characters makes it seem like we live in a "Kakao society." How did the Kakao company create this Kakao society?

Thanks to Kakao Talk's success, the Kakao company was able to develop other apps. By doing this they were awarded the Mobile App Award in 2010, and attracted investment in the amount of 920 billion won in April of last year. So, let’s find out the process by which Kakao Talk found success. Smart phones were developed explosively in 2010. At this time, Kakao Talk was launched and attracted people by allowing them to communicate for free by connecting to the Internet using Wi-Fi or 3G, which was different from existing methods that required payment for sending text messages. Kakao Talk, never satisfied with being a messenger service, gradually grew to add more functions. For example, Kakao Talk added functions like Plus-Friend, that helped people get various information, and Voice Talk, which allowed people to make calls for free. Also, the most popular Kakao Friends characters made by Kakao Talk are used to produce emoticons for daily supplies. In this way, Kakao Talk could achieve success and the Kakao company became a new cultural force and society that became closely associated with our real life by producing applications like Kakao taxi, Kakao bus, remittance apps, games and so on.

However, are there any problems arising from the society created by the Kakao company? Recently, one of controversial problems of the Kakao company is that people have to agree to the collecting of their information if they want to use their applications. Consumers have complained that they are anxious about personal information leakage and being forced to agree to the collection of their personal information. To examine this issue we asked Kyonggi University's students about problems associated with the Kakao company? Most of the students think the main problem of the Kakao company is the reckless diversification of its business. The problem is it has invaded too many areas and has a monopoly. Since the acquisition and merger (M&A) with the Daum, portal site two years ago, Kakao has diversified its business recklessly. Due to the M&A, they were able to strengthen the competitiveness of the company and started offering services other than Kakao Talk. One of the first apps was Kakao taxi and it achieved a big success. Based on its success, Kakao extended its business with apps like Kakao Navigation, Subway, Driver, Bus, etc. However, as Kakao started getting bigger and bigger, more and more companies began experiencing difficulty. Whenever Kakao took over a company or produced applications necessary in our everyday lives, existing rival corporations went out of business. Not only existing rival corporations suffered, though, start-up companies never tried to start a business in one of Kakao's area. Also, the problem is that local businesses suffer when the market is monopolized by Kakao and they discontinue business frequently when people have no way to respond to the Kakao invasion. Finally, after Kakao's occupation of an area only Kakao survives and we have no choice but to use products made by Kakao. People have voiced concern about Kakao invasion of too many areas and its monopoly.

However, the Kakao company has become a very big part of our lives. One concern is Kakao that nobody knows that how much they will expand their business. The Kakao company may become a "Kingdom", and if that is a possibility what do we have to do at this point in time? We have to find better things to use instead of unconditionally selecting apps from Kakao's area. If there is nothing better to use, we have to give advice to the Kakao company. It is important to direct the Kakao company and our society in the right direction.