Kakao to bundle emoticons, Melon and Pay... integrated membership launches next month

[Financial News] Kakao is introducing its first integrated membership, bundling major services ranging from emoticons and Melon to Kakao Pay and KakaoTalk Gift.
Kakao announced on the 21st that it will soft-launch 'Kakao Membership' on Oct. 1 and has opened a page for users to sign up for launch notifications ahead of the rollout.
Kakao Membership is an integrated membership program that links Kakao's various services, including emoticons, Talk Cloud, KakaoTalk Gift, Melon, Pay and securities, to provide benefits. Its defining feature is that it combines existing paid services and new benefits into a single membership. The program will also offer welcome benefits for new members and additional rewards through KakaoTalk Gift. Details of the benefits and enrollment process will be unveiled on Oct. 1, the day of the soft launch.
To stabilize the service in its early stages, Kakao plans to initially offer first-come, first-served enrollment to a small number of users before gradually expanding eligibility.
Starting on the 21st, users can receive a notification about the soft launch by adding the 'Kakao Membership' KakaoTalk channel as a friend. On Oct. 1, Kakao will provide a launch notification and an enrollment link through the channel. Users can add the channel through the launch-notification signup page on the Kakao Now banner in KakaoTalk's More tab or by searching for it among friends.
Kim Min-gyu, Kakao's performance leader, said, "We plan to provide reasonable benefits that users can experience only through Kakao Membership going forward."


[email protected] Choi Hye-rim Reporter