App Watch: Connecting People After Japan Quake

Kakao Talk is a South Korean mobile instant messaging application. This company was launched in March last year, and already has 9 million users worldwide. Including 1 million in Japan.

It currently supports 3 languages: Korean, English, Japanese. The messages are sent over third-generation such as 3G/(now 4G) and WiFi networks, that's why users don't need a messaging contract. This charge-free social networking service application had become very popular over the past year. Currently the free application can be downloaded by iPhone and Android phone users but they are developing an application for Blackberry smartphones. This application has being very useful specially when the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. The telecommunication systems were devastated and a lot of people weren't able to communicate with them families/friends to check on them and see if they were alive. Many people used Kakao Talk and received answers back.

I think that this application will spread even more after it reaches blackberrys and smartphones. And the fact that the company is adding services as the one that allows users to send gift coupons to their friends, will draw in more users.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/03/30/app-watch-connecting-people-after-japan-quake/?KEYWORDS=telecommunication

Sapir