Is the Absolute Power a Thing of the Past?…KakaoTalk and Naver's Position Shaken by Google's Fierce Pursuit

User Gap in May Only About 500,000
Threat to ‘Platform No.1’ Position in Second Half of Year

The positions of KakaoTalk, known as the 'national messenger,' and Naver, the 'national portal,' are being significantly shaken. The reason is Google.

According to Mobile Index, a data analysis solution from mobile big data platform company IGAWorks, KakaoTalk's MAU (Monthly Active Users) in May was 41,458,675, maintaining its first place, but the gap with second-place YouTube (40,951,188) was only 507,487. MAU refers to the number of people who have used the service at least once in a month.

Photo by Pixabay [Image source=Pixabay]

KakaoTalk, called the 'national messenger,' has held the top spot in domestic platform MAU for the past three years, but YouTube's pursuit is fierce.

As of May, the MAU gap between KakaoTalk and YouTube has sharply decreased from 2,987,225 in 2020 to 2,272,538 in 2021, 1,530,494 in 2022, and about 500,000 this year. This is the smallest gap ever recorded.

The IT industry expects that if this trend continues, YouTube is likely to surpass KakaoTalk's MAU in the second half of this year (July to December). In terms of total monthly usage time (May), YouTube (1,522,346,643 hours) is about three times that of KakaoTalk (536,545,507 hours).

This is interpreted as a result of rapidly changing consumption patterns, especially among the 'Generation Z' (those born from the mid-1990s to early 2000s), who prefer platforms rich in visual information such as videos and images.

There is also a significant shift in the web-based search engine market. Naver, which has long been the absolute leader domestically, has seen its market share fall below 60% since February, marking four consecutive months of decline.

According to web analytics company Internet Trend, Naver's web MAU market share dropped from 64.5% in January to 59.6% in February, 57.3% in March, 55.9% in April, and 55.7% in May. Meanwhile, Google's market share rapidly increased from 26.48% in January to 34.8% in May. The gap with Naver has narrowed to within 20%.