Page 68 - Blog 2015 - Korea in Canada

2014-2015
Blog CollECTIon

“KakaoTalk”

A revolutionary Messaging App

by Seong Eon Ha (Calgary, AB)

“Do you have KakaoTalk?”
Have you ever been asked this by a Korean friend or
acquaintance, but had no idea what “KakaoTalk” is?
akaoTalk, often abbreviated to “KaTalk/카톡,” is a
KKorean cross-platform messaging application like
Whatsapp, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger. It is
available in most smartphone platforms including android,
ioS, Blackberry oS and Windows oS. Since its launch in
2010, KakaoTalk has been arguably the most influential
smartphone application in Korea. To most Koreans, once
they buy a new smartphone, KakaoTalk is almost always
the first third-party app downloaded. It has largely replaced texting in Korea, and despite
being a third-party application, set a messaging standard. This means that KakaoTalk is
sometimes called the “people’s app/국민어플” in Korea. It is used by 93% of smartphone
users in Korea. KakaoTalk’s services include instant messaging, including sending multimedia
files, voice calls, and video calls like most smartphone instant messaging apps do.

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