KakaoTalk continues to dominate mobile messenger market

SEOUL, June 27 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top mobile messenger KakaoTalk continued to dominate the local market in May, data showed Wednesday, as Facebook Messenger managed to expand its presence among teenagers.

According to the data compiled by industry tracker WiseApp, KakaoTalk boasted 35.2 million active monthly users in May and accounted for 94.4 percent of the total time spent on mobile messengers in the country.

Facebook Messenger held 6.4 million users and accounted for 1.8 percent of the total time, followed by LINE at 2.25 million users and 1.1 percent. Telegram, which earlier garnered interest from privacy-sensitive users, made up only 1.1 percent, WiseApp said.

The report is based on a survey conducted on some 23,000 users of Android-powered smartphones.

Among teenagers, WiseApp said KakaoTalk dominated 87 percent of their time spent on mobile messengers, but Facebook Messenger took up 9.9 percent, up 1.8 percentage points from October 2017. Over the cited period, market share numbers for KakaoTalk moved down 2.7 percentage points.

Facebook Messenger had 2.38 million monthly active teenage users in May, while KakaoTalk had 4.65 million, WiseApp added.

colin@yna.co.kr
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