Kakao Talk Usage Statistics And Facts (2026)

Introduction

Kakao Talk Usage Statistics: Digital connectivity runs through contemporary society because it enables people to connect through messaging applications, which serve as the main method of communication for both personal and business purposes. KakaoTalk stands as the top communication platform in South Korea, which belongs to the global messaging market that includes WhatsApp Messenger and Telegram as its two major competitors. The 2025 app reaches a near-total user base because it shapes communication methods, transaction processes, shopping experiences, and work activities for millions of people.

The article presents research findings about Kakao Talk usage statistics 2025, user base, and financial performance, which show detailed information about its user reach and engagement metrics, together with its revenue effects and overall impact on its business ecosystem.

Editor’s Choice

1. KakaoTalk reached 48.9 million monthly active users in South Korea in 2025, covering 94.7% of the total population.
2. Kakao serves approximately 54 million global monthly active users across its ecosystem.
3. Kakao’s total revenue reached its highest point at KRW 1,050 billion during the second quarter of 2024, but it declined to KRW 871 billion by the first quarter of 2025.
4. The platform showed consistent revenue performance between KRW 943 billion and KRW 1,047 billion, which demonstrated that the primary business operations remained strong.
5. Kakao’s content revenue decreased by almost 16%, which resulted in a drop from KRW 1,033 billion in 1Q24 to KRW 871 billion in 1Q25.
6. Kakao experienced a 22% revenue increase during the first quarter of 2024, but this growth stopped at a 6% revenue decline by the first quarter of 2025.
7. Kakao holds the 4th position in worldwide rankings because its digital rights score reaches 44%, which shows its business ecosystem and governance systems have reached advanced development stages.
8. Kakao Talk usage drives advertising revenue, which accounts for more than 35% of total revenue for Kakao.
9. KakaoTalk’s advertising revenue increased by 7% compared to the previous year, which resulted in a revenue increase from KRW 1,120 billion in FY23 to KRW 1,199 billion in FY24.
10. KakaoTalk business revenue reached its highest point at KRW 537.6 billion during the fourth quarter of 2023 before it returned to regular levels in 2024.
11. The users spent 677.85 minutes in October, which showed a 22.32-minute decrease from their 700.17-minute usage in September.

Kakao Revenue

(Source: kakaocdn.net)

• The chart shows Kakao’s revenue performance through its quarterly financial results, which separate Platform and Content revenue streams while displaying year-on-year growth metrics between 1Q24 and 1Q25.
• Total revenue shows a gradual declining trend over the period, reflecting a moderation in growth momentum despite relative resilience in the platform segment.
• In absolute terms, total revenue peaked at KRW 1,050 billion in 2Q24 before declining to KRW 871 billion by 1Q25, representing a cumulative drop of around 17% from the peak.
• Platform revenue (highlighted in yellow) remained comparatively stable, fluctuating within a narrow range of KRW 943–1,047 billion.
• The reliable revenue stream for Kakao comes from its core services, which include messaging, advertising, and its financial and transportation services.
• Platform revenue reached KRW 1,047 billion in 4Q24, which indicates both seasonal demand and successful revenue generation efforts.
• The content segment, which appears in grey, shows a more apparent downward trend. Content revenue declined from KRW 1,033 billion in 1Q24 to KRW 871 billion in 1Q25, a contraction of roughly 16%.
• The decrease in performance results from competitive pressure and market regulation after the earlier growth period.
• The growth rate dropped from 22%, which represented strong growth in 1Q24, to low single digits until mid-2024 and then turned negative from 3Q24.
• The company experienced a 6% year-over-year revenue decline in 1Q25, which demonstrated ongoing revenue problems.
• The stable platform revenue of Kakao and its declining content revenue create a situation where the company mainly depends on its platform ecosystem for earnings, while its content operations face both permanent and temporary difficulties.
• The current situation needs organizations to manage their expenses effectively while they choose which content projects to invest in that will provide them with better returns.

Kakao Rank

(Source: rankingdigitalrights.org)

• Kakao shows its digital ecosystem diversity through its 4th place rank and 44% score.
• Kakao usage shows that the platform supports approximately 54 million users who use it every month throughout the world, and its advertising business generates more than 35% of its total revenue, while games and e-commerce produce consistent income and support future development.

Kakao Employees

(Source: kakaocdn.net)

• The chart shows Kakao’s employee count from 1Q24 until 1Q25, which distinguishes between the parent company and its separate business units.
• Total headcount declined from 17,197 employees in 1Q24 to 16,559 in 1Q25, representing a year-on-year reduction of 638 employees, or approximately 3.7%.
• The workforce decreased by 156 employees between 4Q24 and 1Q25, which indicates that the company continues to streamline its operations instead of making temporary workforce changes.
• The organization experiences ongoing decreases because it has implemented permanent operational changes that improve efficiency.
• The subsidiary workforce decreased from 13,327 employees in 1Q24 to 12,545 employees in 1Q25, which represents a decrease of 782 employees and a YoY contraction of 5.9%.
• The trend demonstrates management’s commitment to divesting non-core businesses while optimizing their portfolio for higher-margin projects.
• The parent company of Kakao maintained stable operations since its workforce range stayed between 4,014 employees and 3,870 employees, which resulted in a 1Q25 total of 4,014 employees.
• The organization chooses to hire or keep employees who work in essential functions that include platform development and data and AI development.
• The employee distribution in 1Q24 showed that subsidiaries employed approximately 77% of the total workforce, which dropped to roughly 76% in 1Q25.
• The shift seems minor, but it leads to an ongoing process of transforming the organization into a less complex operational framework.
• Workforce control measures enable companies to maintain stable profit margins throughout the years because labor expenses normally make up 30 to 40 % of total operational costs for technology and platform-based businesses.

Kakao Talk Advertising Revenue

(Source: kakaocdn.net)

• The chart shows that KakaoTalk has experienced continuous growth in its advertising revenue, which increased from KRW 1,120 billion in FY23 to KRW 1,199 billion in FY24.
• The upward trend shows that users of the platform are becoming better at generating revenue from their monetization efforts.
• Kakao Talk usage drives better performance because it increases both daily active users and time spent on the app, which results in higher ad inventory worth.
• The Kakao Talk usage statistics show that advertisers achieve better results through precise targeting, which they can execute within the ecosystem.

Kakao Talk Sales Revenue

(Reference: kedglobal.com)

• The chart shows the revenue trends of Kakao’s KakaoTalk business from Q3 2023 to Q2 2024.
• Sales rose from KRW 479.5 billion in Q3 2023 to a peak of KRW 537.6 billion in Q4 2023, a strong quarter-on-quarter increase of about 12.1%.
• The company reported revenue decline to KRW 522.1 billion in Q1 2024, which represented a drop of 2.9 %, and to KRW 513.9 billion in Q2 2024, which represented a decrease of 1.6 %.
• The pattern shows that seasonal demand peaks are followed by a return to regular business operations.
• Kakao Talk usage remains stable, which enables the company to generate revenue from advertising and business messaging services.
• The company depends on sustained usage of Kakao Talk for its revenue stabilization throughout the coming years.

Kakao User Growth

• KakaoTalk has established itself as an essential digital service in South Korea which people need to use their smartphones to send text messages.
• According to company disclosures, KakaoTalk recorded approximately 48.9 million monthly active users, which equals 94.7 % of the total national population.
• The research shows that 97.2 % of South Korean internet users used the platform as their primary method for daily communication, commercial activities, and content distribution.
• KakaoTalk attracts adult users who represent its complete user base. The GWI data from Q3 2024 shows that 50.9 % of users are male, while 49.1 % are female, which demonstrates that the platform appeals to both genders.
• The balance between male and female users strengthens Kakao’s advertising effectiveness because it provides brands with access to different customer groups.
• Businesses experience growth patterns that show them moving toward maturity instead of facing market saturation.
• KakaoTalk gained 597000 new users between Q3 2023 and Q3 2024, which resulted in a 1.2% growth rate that shows strong performance in a market that has almost reached complete customer adoption.
• The user base experienced minimal growth from the previous quarter, with an increase of 2000 users, which resulted in a 0.004 % growth rate.
• The Kakao Talk usage metrics show that the platform has reached advanced development because users maintain consistent engagement.
• Users in South Korea depend on Kakao Talk as a main digital platform that companies use to develop long-term revenue plans.

Kakao Talk Redesign Shows Mixed Engagement Signals

• The post-revamp performance of KakaoTalk shows that short-term engagement metrics do not match actual monthly user patterns.
• Kakao reported an increase in average daily stay time after its September 2025 “Friends” tab redesign, but third-party data showed that user engagement levels decreased during that period.
• According to IGAWorks’ Mobile Index, which reports an accuracy rate of 95%, the average monthly usage time per user declined by 22.32 minutes, dropping from 700.17 minutes in September to 677.85 minutes in October.
• The data showed session durations at the interface revamp, which resulted in 694.81 minutes of Q3 duration, below the Q3 average. This dataset provides insights into mobile app usage, but it fails to account for PC usage, which creates challenges when comparing with Kakao’s internal data.
• Kakao’s Q3 earnings announcement showed that average daily usage increased from 24 minutes to 26 minutes after the redesign.
• The company withheld information about its measurement period and whether desktop usage contributed to results, which demonstrates how different research methods led to opposing results about Kakoo Talk usage.
• The monthly active user count grew from 46.49 million in September 2025 to 46.64 million in October 2025, which shows that the revamp did not affect user reach or their daily activities.
• The way people use Kakao Talk shows strong daily communication ties that continue to grow despite changing interaction patterns.

Kakao Talk User Gender Distribution

(Source: theglobalstatistics.com)

• The near-equal gender split in 2025 highlights the maturity and universality of Kakao Talk usage in South Korea.
• South Korea maintains an even user demographic distribution, which shows 50.9% of its users as male and 49.1% as female, resulting in approximately 24.90 million male users and 23.99 million female users from its total of 48.9 million monthly active users.
• The balance proves that KakaoTalk functions as an essential communication platform that people use for their daily needs instead of being a specialized social networking application.
• The equal distribution of users throughout all customer groups helps the business maintain consistent user engagement, improve its advertising results, and expand its operational base.
• The Koreans who use Kakao Talk constantly throughout their daily activities demonstrate its importance as a fundamental digital system that enables their daily routines while creating future growth chances and revenue streams.

Conclusion

Kakao Talk Usage Statistics: The digital platform KakaoTalk proves its strong operational capacity throughout South Korea because it operates as a fully developed digital system, which has achieved widespread user adoption. The core platform foundation of KakaoTalk has maintained its strength despite the current revenue growth slowdown and content-based businesses experiencing both cyclical and structural challenges. The ongoing user penetration, together with the mixed user demographic distribution and the uninterrupted user activity and increasing advertising revenues, serve as fundamental elements that support the sustained profitability of Kakao’s business operations.

The company demonstrates its commitment to improving business performance by reorganizing staffing and making targeted investments, which will help it achieve better cost control and sustainable profit margins. KakaoTalk maintains its essential status as a communication platform that people use throughout their daily lives, so it will continue to generate revenue and support its role as a main component of Korea’s digital infrastructure.

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