Kakao Announces Platform Win-Win Strategies at UN Conference on Trade and Development

Attendance at the Expert Meeting on Competition Policy 'IGE'

Kakao announced on the 5th that it attended the 22nd Competition Policy Government Experts Meeting (hereinafter IGE Meeting) held in Geneva, Switzerland, as a representative of global platform companies alongside senior officials from competition authorities around the world.

Kakao attending the UN Conference on Trade and Development
Photo by Kakao

The IGE Meeting is an annual conference organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), an intergovernmental organization under the UN established in 1964. The competition law expert group under UNCTAD invites global competition authority officials and experts to share global trends and key issues in the field of competition law. This year’s topics included 'Competition Law Enforcement in the Digital Ecosystem,' 'Competition Policy and Poverty Reduction,' and 'Trends in Revising Global Merger Review Standards.'

Kakao participated in the session titled 'Competition Law Enforcement in the Digital Ecosystem: Policy Challenges and Choices.' The session was attended by policy officials from global competition authorities such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the European Union (EU) Commission, Japan Fair Trade Commission, Mexico Federal Economic Competition Commission, Portugal Competition Authority, as well as academic experts.

Kakao’s Dr. Youngshin Jang, head of the CA Council Group Fair Trade Support Team, participated as a panelist and delivered a roundtable presentation on the topic 'Digital New Normal and Platform Regulation.'

In her presentation, Team Leader Jang introduced Kakao’s win-win initiatives, including support for small business digital transformation following the Korean government’s introduction of platform self-regulation. She emphasized the need for a cautious approach that considers different competitive environments by country while designing desirable platform regulatory frameworks, ensuring that healthy competition, innovation, and consumer welfare in the digital platform ecosystem are not undermined.

Furthermore, she proposed that international organizations should work to prevent the phenomenon of a 'Regulation Race,' where platform regulations converge globally to the strongest levels due to regulatory gaps among global competition authorities.

Team Leader Jang stated, "As a leading platform company in Korea, we will continue to actively participate in global platform regulation discussions," adding, "We plan to faithfully implement digital win-win self-regulation to grow together with stakeholders within the platform ecosystem."