Web service provider Kakao jumps into competition in AI assistant market

By Park Sae-jin Posted : September 11, 2017, 16:32 Updated : September 11, 2017, 16:32

[Kakao]

 

South Korean web service provider Kakao threw down the gauntlet against Naver, the market leader, with its new AI voice assistant speaker in their race to gain the advantageous spot in South Korea's blue ocean market.

Kakao said through its special website that it would receive pre-orders for its AI speaker "Kakao Mini" from September 18. The speaker will be sold at 59,000 won (52 US dollars), and buyers will get a bunch of gift packs such as one-year unlimited service coupon for Melon, the country's largest online music service.

Kakao's aggressive promotion drew widespread attention as its total price including the service coupon is about half of Melon's one-year pass. Figurines of Kakao's mascots will also be included in the pre-order package.

Kakao is desperate to catch up with Naver, which ran a successful promotion in August when it handed out "Wave", an AI assistant speaker based on its own AI platform "Clova", to users who bought one-year pass coupons for Naver Music that cost 99,000 won. Although Naver did not say how many orders were made, its promotion ended in just 35 minutes.

Online communities are on alert as Kakao's pre-orders are also expected to end very soon. "Man, for this price, this is a must buy!" said a user called "Popcard" from online IT community Clien. Another user "LifeTiming" predicted tough competition: "With such an attractive price, there will be many people rushing to make pre-orders for Kakao Mini."

Although the global AI voice assistant market has been very active for years, South Korea has seen slow growth.  Naver's Wave and Kakao's Kakao Mini are the virtual first-generation of home-made AI assistant speakers while Samsung released a PC-integrated AI speaker last year only to adopt AI features in its smartphones.

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