"Have you tried the Chun-guma emoticon? It's free until tomorrow, so hurry and get it."
"Free use ends today. It's a shame."
This year marks the 14th anniversary of Kakao starting its emoticon business through KakaoTalk. What's remarkable is that the market value of the emoticon business is a staggering 1.2 trillion won. As the emoticon business has established itself as a stable source of revenue for Kakao, the company plans to continue to grow the business, including increasing subscribers for its emoticon subscription service, 'Emoticon Plus'.
As of the 30th, the top emoticon on KakaoTalk is 'Chun-guma', recently introduced as a new character by Kakao Friends. KakaoTalk provided users with the emoticon 'Chun-guma is sweet potato' for free for three days. Chun-guma, which has the appearance of a sweet potato with a cat's face, climbed to the top of Kakao's emoticon rankings just two days after its release. The second place was taken by 'Project Sekai Colorful Stage!', and the third place was occupied by 'Jang-mang Loopy'.
For Kakao, the emoticon business is a source of revenue. The market value of popular characters that drive Kakao's emoticon business—such as Chun-sik, the original of Chun-guma, and Kakao Friends characters like Ryan, as well as Jang-mang Loopy and Mang-geureojin Gom—has been steadily increasing. According to Kakao, as of the end of last year, there were 2,885 emoticons with cumulative sales exceeding 100 million won, 146 emoticons exceeding 1 billion won, and 17 emoticons recording sales of over 10 billion won.
Emoticons play a role similar to 'lubricants' that facilitate communication in daily life. As of November last year, the cumulative volume of emoticons sent exceeded 280 billion. The emoticons that rank high in popularity also reflect the social context of the time.
Anyone can create and sell emoticons for KakaoTalk. By joining Kakao's emoticon studio, creators can propose the emoticons they have created. Once the proposed emoticons pass Kakao's review process and are approved for commercialization, they will be sold within KakaoTalk. Although the payment structure has not been publicly disclosed, it varies according to the agreement between the creators and Kakao. It is understood that Kakao and the creators share revenue after deducting the fees charged by the app market.
Kakao plans to expand its subscription service for emoticons called 'Emoticon Plus'. Launched in 2021, Emoticon Plus is a service that automatically recommends suitable emoticons when KakaoTalk users input desired keywords. By paying 3,900 won per month, users can use emoticons without restrictions. As of last year, the number of Emoticon Plus subscribers reached 2.5 million.
Chung Shina, the CEO of Kakao, noted in a conference call last November that "Kakao's focus for the coming year will be subscription services," adding, "Although the absolute revenue from Emoticon Plus and Talk Drawer Plus is low, they are expected to enjoy stable service with low sensitivity to the economy, so we will be concentrating on these areas."