South Korea’s major mobile messenger operator Kakao Corp. aims to expand its service portfolio to newer regions via blockchain tech according to Yonhaps News. The corporation runs KakaoTalk which is a popular messaging application, but now a new business plan has been introduced, which targets the new Asian markets as well. The new subsidiary for this venture is named Ground X. Yeo Min-soo, co-CEO of Kakao Corp. told Yonhap news that the vision of the new project is to “maximize synergy through an integration of Kakao services centering on KakaoTalk”.

KakaoTalk was released in 2010, and since its launch and besides messaging various other services have been added such as games and money transactions which resulted in a significant increase in the number of people using the application. Now as they are aiming at these new markets, the need of a possible blockchain integration has been in plans. Ground X, the new subsidiary is specialized in blockchain, and they vowed to explore the technology in order offer the best possible experience for the new markets. The blockchain platform is going to be open for the public in order to “explore ways to leverage R&D and investment to ensure further growth, and offer new blockchain-based services combined with Kakao’s existing services” the company added.

According to TheInvestor.co.uk possible scope of focus will be on music streaming, gaming, videos, webtoons. Yeo Min-soo also stated that the company has to keep up with the pace of the game-changer IT solutions, thus they will work tirelessly to launch the new services to meet the needs of both the existing and the future users with the integration of new technologies in order to maintain a ‘trailblazer’ position within the market.