The usage-time gap between KakaoTalk, often called South Korea's "national messenger," and Instagram has widened sharply over the past year.
Instagram's usage time has climbed consistently, while KakaoTalk's has declined. The shift comes as Kakao seeks to increase time spent on its platform through AI-powered services. The company carried out a corporate split last month to sharpen its focus on artificial intelligence (AI), a move being closely watched across the IT industry.
According to app and retail analytics firm Wiseapp Retail on Tuesday, Instagram users spent an average of 21 hours and 27 minutes per month on the app in July. KakaoTalk users spent 10 hours and 47 minutes over the same period.
Instagram users spent nearly twice as much time on the app each month as KakaoTalk users — a gap of about 10 hours and 40 minutes.
The gap has grown even wider compared with about a year earlier. In August of last year, Instagram's average monthly usage time per user was 18 hours and 1 minute, versus 11 hours and 25 minutes for KakaoTalk. The gap between the two apps was 6 hours and 36 minutes. Over the past year, Instagram's per-user usage time rose about 19 percent, while KakaoTalk's fell about 5.5 percent.
Instagram's edge in the platform usage-time race has grown considerably as a result.
Kakao had recognized this trend and earlier pushed to transform KakaoTalk from a simple messaging app into a social networking service to boost usage time. Last year, it introduced a "Now tab" within KakaoTalk, encouraging users to discover and consume friends' daily content. But facing strong user backlash, Kakao reverted the "Friends tab" feature back to its original format.
Observers say Kakao must now find ways to boost usage time other than an SNS-style overhaul similar to Instagram's.
Kakao's answer is AI. Last month, the company announced a corporate split that reorganized its business structure into "Kakao X" and "Kakao AI." Kakao plans to expand AI features across KakaoTalk and other core services, with Kakao AI at the center. The goal is to weave AI into every corner of the Kakao ecosystem, boosting not just how often users open its apps but how long they stay.
Kakao has set a goal of drawing more than 20 million daily active users for its AI services by 2030. It also aims to increase platform usage time by more than 50 percent from current levels.
An industry insider said, "Platform competition today centers on usage time rather than simple user numbers, so even internal evaluation metrics have shifted to emphasize time spent. KakaoTalk faces the challenge of securing usage time through AI services after its SNS-style overhaul ran into user backlash, but for the AI market, competition with global companies is inevitable, so the key will be whether Kakao can create a differentiated service."
chami@heraldcorp.com
