Portals, SNS, and Maps are dominated by 'Naver'... Messenger is overwhelmingly 'Kakao'

Naver MAU 30.16 Million, Over 3 Times Larger Than Portal Daum
KakaoTalk MAU 35.58 Million, Far Surpassing Naver Line

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] While Naver has secured many users in the portal, social networking service (SNS), and map sectors, Kakao has shown strength in the messenger segment based on 'KakaoTalk (KakaoTalk)'.

According to 'Mobile Index' by IGAWorks on the 9th, as of last month, Naver's monthly active users (MAU) in the portal sector were 30,161,329, more than three times that of Kakao's 'Daum' (8,188,212). However, in the messenger sector, KakaoTalk's MAU was 35,585,667, far surpassing Naver's 'LINE' (1,509,304).

The average usage time per person for KakaoTalk was 11.7 hours, ahead of Naver's 10.2 hours. The average number of usage days per person also showed KakaoTalk at 24.6 days, widening the gap from Naver's 18.6 days.

In SNS applications, Naver's 'Band' had an MAU of 16.92 million, securing first place with a gap from second place 'Instagram' (11.49 million). Kakao's 'KakaoStory' recorded an MAU of 9.96 million, ranking third. The average number of usage days per person was higher for Band at 12.5 days compared to KakaoStory's 8.5 days.

In map apps, 'Naver Map' ranked first with an MAU of 11.12 million, while 'KakaoMap' ranked fifth with 5.3 million. In the webtoon and web novel apps sector, 'Naver Webtoon' and 'Naver Series' surpassed 5.9 million MAU, exceeding the 4 million MAU of 'KakaoPage' and 'Daum Webtoon'. In music apps, Kakao's 'Melon' had an MAU of 6,284,866, surpassing 'Naver Music' with 366,467.

Meanwhile, mobile big data platform company IGAWorks analyzed the app usage status by category of Naver and Kakao on Android-based mobile devices, averaging 35 million daily from June last year to last month.