We mentioned in an earlier article regarding the acquisitions Daum and Kakao are making. Recently, the two Korean giants have acquired Dialoid and Sunnysoft respectively. Read the earlier story here.

There are two issues that these acquisitions put forward:

1) The approach to integrating startups is an extension of the philosophy behind Daum and Kakao's technology infrastructure. The fact that Daum and Kakao's acquisitions imply that these two companies are ready to support Korean startups who has got the right technology and the right mindset to change people's lives. To put simply, this is not only 'good news' for Korean startups, especially for those in the voice recognition industry, but also a sign that Korean companies are forward-looking and more open to supporting startups.

So, for Korean startups that are struggling with investment with their main concern as 'growth', Daum and Kakao as well as other major companies will be a successful growth channel, it will be important to get necessary traction. (However, let's bear in mind that company growth tactics via acquisition that work really well for one company may not be as good for another's) ,

2) The second issue is that the competition between two big giants such as Daum and Kakao will be extremely interesting to observe in the upcoming months to say the least. - and of course, there are other key players in the field such as Naver. The Korean startup ecosystem will definitely be affected by their attempts to increase and expand their user base. And when we consider foreign companies in the field, things are about to tense up.

One key theme you can see from the above issues is that the prevalent answer to user growth has to do with building a great product and a great relationship with the customer base and this is perhaps why the voice recognition industry has gained a lot of attention: because at the end of the day, that's what building user channel is about. It's about providing value to people, and building a cognitive relationship between the user and the platform.

Once you have that relationship, you can increase the chances of your users referring to your business; this all comes back to user experience of course, but with the two very apt companies as mentioned above, the competition will be extremely fierce. Let's not forget that Daum and Kakao are both major platforms in Korea!  I'm getting popcorn. Care to join?