Kakao to spend 300 bln won to support small biz partners

 Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea’s top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, said Wednesday it will spend 300 billion won (US$246 million) over the next five years to support small business partners.

The project, as part of its long-term strategy named Beyond Korea, is aimed at assisting business owners so they can adapt better to the digital platform amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

“Kakao aims to assist small merchants so that they can successfully adapt to digital platforms, and so that the partners can eventually reap profits,” said Hong Eun-taek, co-chief of Kakao’s new organization aimed at finding new growth engines, during an online press conference.

Of the proposed budget, 100 billion won will be earmarked to assist small merchants during the first half of the year.

Under the project, Kakao will help small business owners with its platform.

The project comes as Kakao’s revenue from its platform business increased by 48 percent on-year to 1.48 trillion won during the fourth quarter of last year thanks to the steady growth of Biz Message and Talk Biz.

At Talk Biz Board, individual sellers, mostly small business owners, can sell their products through a platform connected to KakaoTalk.

Kakao said it will hold various tech classes for small business owners so they can adapt better to a new kind of business environment in the post-COVID-19 era.

Live commerce, or TV home shopping-style mobile shopping, has recently emerged as a potential game changer for the retail sector amid the pandemic.

Also, 50 billion won will be invested to support digital content creators, and 55 billion won for mobility platform workers.

Another 20 billion won will be used to assist startups, and 80 billion won for workers in mobility and digital sectors.