Kakao
South Korean internet company
Kakao Corporation (Korean: 카카오) is a South Korean internet conglomerate headquartered in Jeju City. It was formed through the merger of Daum Communications and the original Kakao Inc. in 2010. The company was renamed Daum Kakao in 2014. In 2015, it was rebranded once more, reverting simply to Kakao.
The KakaoTalk messaging app dominates in South Korea, and after launching in March 2010, the service gained around 90% of domestic market share in 2015.
History
2006–2014: Founding of Kakao Corp.
Kakao Corp is the company behind KakaoTalk, which serves as its main platform and flagship application. It was founded in 2006 by Kim Bum-soo, the former CEO of NHN Corporation (the organization that emerged from the Hangame and Naver.com merger) as Kakao Inc.
In August 2013, three of the globally ranked top 10 Android games (according to analytics provider App Annie) were tied into the KakaoTalk platform—Everybody's Marble, Cookie Run, and Anipang.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Kakao” is south Korean internet company. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Kakao, South and Korean, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “south Korean internet company” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17684312. The Library of Congress control number is n2022012435. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2006.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Kakao”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Kakao primary sources, Kakao archive and Kakao research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kakao”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Kakao” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.