SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The first supply of the “Kakao Friends Joyride Limited Collection,” which was jointly showcased by character brand Kakao Friends and sports brand Nike Korea, sold out over the weekend. Kakao IX Corp. made an announcement on Monday that its running dolls, black phone cases, dry-fit T-shirts and airpod cases [...]
SEOUL, Mar. 6 (Korea Bizwire) – The Korean Tourism Organization announced its plans on Tuesday to designate ‘Apeach’, a character from Kakao Friends, as its new ‘tourism ambassador’. Apeach will participate in various promotional events in Japan to attract Japanese tourists, with the goal of attracting 3.2 million visitors to South Korea. Ever since Kakao Friends first [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Kakao Friends Corp., a character licensing arm under South Korea’s top mobile messenger operator Kakao Corp., said Wednesday it has decided to change its name to Kakao IX after merging with JOH, a brand consulting firm, earlier this month. Kakao IX said its new name stands for “Innovative Experience,” [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – Almost 30 million emoji sales later, we have some insight into why the Kakao Friends emoji characters are so popular. On September 17, an analysis into the popularity of the beloved emojis by professor Kim Jun Su from Hannam University found a correlation between purchase intent and factors like [...]
SEOUL, April 19 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean messaging giant Kakao is accelerating its efforts to expand the online presence of its much-loved emoticons by branching out into other services including Kakao TV and web portal Daum, as Kakao Friends has become one of the most recognized brands in the country. Speaking to the press [...]
SEOUL, July 19 (Korea Bizwire) – Kidult or adultescent – newly coined portmanteaus that refer to adults who are interested in culture generally targeted to younger youths – have become popular marketing strategies for many retail industries. Food manufacturing companies are seeing the most benefit from targeting those with young minds. Italian confectionery company Ferrero’s Kinder [...]
SEOUL, July 31 (Korea Bizwire) – With rapid growth in the character business that features collaborations between the emojis of mobile messengers like KakaoTalk of DaumKakao and Line of Naver, the two largest IT companies in Korea are enjoying the effect of killing two birds with one stone. As the “Kakao Friends” and “Line Friends” emojis raise [...]
SEOUL, May 27 (Korea Bizwire) – Jin Air, a budget airline in Korea, will be the first carrier to introduce Kakao Pay as a mobile ticket payment method. With its decision, passengers purchasing Jin Air tickets through the Internet or on mobile apps will be able to pay using their Kakao Pay accounts, as well [...]
SEOUL, May 20 (Korea Bizwire) — For Yang Jun-mo, a 26-year-old graduate student in Seoul, visiting a neighborhood convenience store for light snacks is a daily routine. But every time, there is one thing that grabs his attention: his favorite brands of bread come with collectible stickers of emojis from free mobile messenger KakaoTalk. “It kind [...]