Technology

South Korea’s top mobile stock trading app is launching a cryptocurrency exchange for bitcoin and ether. Kakao Stock is based on Kakao Talk, the country’s most popular smartphone messenger app with over 200 million users worldwide. Kakao Talk is installed on over 95% of smartphones in South Korea.

Also read: South Korea Legalizes Bitcoin International Transfers, Challenging Traditional Banks

Kakao Talk-Based Cryptocurrency Exchange

Kakao Stock is South Korea’s top mobile stock trading app, which is based on the country’s most popular smartphone messenger app, Kakao Talk. It was established in February 2014 by fintech company Dunamu Inc. The company reportedly announced on Friday that it is launching a cryptocurrency exchange, according to local publications.

Kakao Stock provides real-time stock quotes and stock trading capabilities that are linked to Kakao Talk. Users buying and trading stocks within the app are connected directly to securities companies in Korea as well as overseas. “Kakao Stock allows its users to conduct transactions without paying additional transaction fees besides the existing trading firm transaction fee,” the company detailed.

The upcoming cryptocurrency exchange will be offered through the app only, and will handle a number of widely-traded coins including bitcoin and ether. The company has been building the exchange since June, according to Etoday.

Kakao Stock’s Growing User Base

Kakao Stock has achieved an average monthly user base of 310,000 active users and an average monthly transaction value of 1.2 trillion won (approximately $1.1 billion) since the service launched. The app has surpassed 1.6 million cumulative downloads and has an aggregate turnover of 20 trillion won as of June this year.

The company has established partnerships with a number of top Korean trading firms, including Mirae Asset Global Investments, Kiwoom Securities, Eugene Investment & Securities, Korea Investment & Securities, IBK Securities, KB Securities, Creon by Daishin Securities, NH Investment & Securities, Samsung Securities, and Shinhan Investment Corp.

Relationship with Kakao Talk

Launched in 2010, Kakao Talk is South Korea’s top mobile smartphone messenger app with approximately 49.5 million monthly active users worldwide as of 2Q17. South Korea only has a population of about 50.7 million in 2017. The app is installed on over 95% of smartphones in the country, according to Techcrunch.

In December 2015, Kakao Talk announced that it had reached 200 million users.

After dominating the mobile chat market with Kakao Talk, Kakao Corp made a strategic investment of $2.5 million in Dunamu Inc in September 2015. “At that time, Dunamu had already been operating a mobile trading app for Kakao since 2014,” described Alltechasia. The publication added:

The two companies jointly established a stock-financial service, Kakao Stock, to provide an integrated financial service optimized for mobile platform use through achieving synergies with other services and capabilities already offered by both Kakao and Dunamu.

How popular do you think this Kakao Talk-based cryptocurrency exchange will be? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Kakao, and Dunamu