Kakao (035720.KS) is rolling out Kakao Membership, its first integrated subscription service, bundling major offerings including Gifting, KakaoPay and Melon.
Kakao said on the 1st that it had disclosed the pricing and main benefits of Kakao Membership and would accept sign-ups on a first-come basis. The monthly subscription fee is 4,900 won.
Kakao Membership links services across the group, including Gifting and TokDeal, KakaoPay, Melon, KakaoPage, emoticons, TokCloud, KakaoPay Insurance and KakaoPay Securities. It is the first time Kakao has offered an integrated membership spanning multiple services.
The benefits are organized into a welcome package for new subscribers, along with rewards, content and value-added perks. Kakao said it would first open sign-ups to a limited number of users on a first-come basis to check the stability of the service in its early stage, then expand access.
New subscribers receive 4,900 won worth of Korean stock in a KakaoPay Securities account and a total of 6,000 won in Melon Cash when they first sign up. The stock is randomly selected from shares eligible for fractional trading, and users under 19 receive a 5,000-won Olive Young discount coupon instead. The Melon Cash is paid in two installments of 3,000 won each and can be used to buy recurring or fixed-term passes.
Rewards consist of shopping points and KakaoPay Points. Purchases through Gifting and TokDeal earn 0.5% to 5% of the payment amount in shopping points regardless of the payment method, up to 20,000 points a month. Paying for Gifting and TokDeal products with KakaoPay Money earns 0.5% to 1% in KakaoPay Points, while offline payments earn 0.5% to 2%, for up to 50,000 points a month. Accumulated points can be used on Gifting and TokDeal, and KakaoPay Points can also be spent at offline merchants such as convenience stores and cafes.
For content, subscribers can choose each month between Emoticon Plus and TokCloud, each worth 3,900 won a month. Emoticon Plus offers unlimited use of more than 850,000 Kakao emoticons, while TokCloud provides 130 gigabytes of storage for automatically backing up KakaoTalk conversations and media files.
Other benefits include 2,000 cash on KakaoPage, cashback of up to 4,900 won on Korean stock selling fees at KakaoPay Securities, coverage of up to 70,000 won for cracked phone screens from KakaoPay Insurance, and a discount on Melon's Streaming Light subscription.
Subscribers can also combine discounts and rewards using Kakao Friends coupons, TokDeal coupons, Gifting coupons and KakaoPay's Good Deal offers.
Users can sign up for Kakao Membership through an opening notification message sent to followers of its KakaoTalk channel or through the settings menu. After the initial first-come sign-up period for a small group of users, Kakao plans to expand the subscriber base in stages. Users who add the Kakao Membership channel as a friend will be the first to receive notices of additional recruitment.
"Kakao Membership brings together benefits that users need in various parts of their daily lives, from subscriptions to shopping, content and value-added perks," said Kim Min-gyu, a performance leader at Kakao. "We will expand the benefits by linking more services going forward and deliver rare value available only through Kakao Membership."
