Anipang and Kakaotalk
Launched in March 2010, KakaoTalk messenger revolutionized the world of global instant messengers for smart phone users. The key difference between KakaoTalk messenger and other applications is that KakaoTalk messenger only requires its users to insert their phone numbers without registering and logging-in. This new application grew exponentially among smart phone users and it acquired 86000000 users within a year. As number of users increased, the company updated additional features such as voice talk and various types of emoticons. Voice talk allows users to make free calls to other users using either Wifi or 3G network. Such distinct features of the application created a “Kakao syndrome” among Korean and other Asian smart phone users. Now KakaoTalk messenger has emerged as one of the most common applications among smart phone users in Korea.
A small smart phone game company called Sundaytoz has effectively used this network of KakaoTalk messenger users. Sundaytoz created a smart phone game called Anipang which is a simple puzzle game of grouping similar animals together. The game itself is not much different from previous smart phone games in the market. What’s revolutionary about this game is that it is connected to KakaoTalk messenger. In order to play this game, people have to log onto their KakaoTalk messenger account and all of their friends on KakaoTalk messenger also show up on the game rank. Players are ranked every week according to their highest scores and they can compare themselves with their friends on their KakaoTalk messenger. Moreover, they can send and receive hearts which are used to play a round of Anipang. By using the vast network of KakaoTalk messenger, Anipang was able to achieve 1000000 users after only 15 days of being in the market.
These two smart phone applications demonstrate how people are affected to follow the crowd. First of all, there is a clear information-based effect in these examples. Non-users of the KakaoTalk messenger can see that there is a “Kakao syndrome” among other smart phone users. They can conjecture that there must be something attractive or useful that other people may know about these applications. Just the fact that so many people have downloaded these applications and are using them conveys a message. Having that information has the information-based effect on non-users and they all begin to follow the huge crowd of KakaoTalk and Anipang users. Second of all, there is a clear direct-benefit effect for smart phone users. Because so many people start using KakaoTalk messenger as their primary means of communicating, it’s beneficial to be part of a crowd by also using the application. This also applies to Anipang users because being part of the crowd has a value in itself. For example, they can receive more hearts to play more rounds of Anipang. Also there’s a network effect of having more users on these applications because they are social applications in which value increases with more users. Thus KakaoTalk messenger and Anipang illustrate how people behave in response to others’ behaviors and effects that stem from such phenomenon.
-UG
sources:
http://web-m-anipang.sundaytoz.com/
http://www.kakao.com/talk/en/faq
http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=105&oid=018&aid=0002594166