Until last month, exactly before the announcement of Apple’s iMessage, Kakao Talk was one of the most popular messaging services in Korea. Because of this service, there are many conflicts and disputes between carriers and free messaging services. And these controversies have ignited the issue of network-neutrality. After the success of Kakao Talk, Daum launched MyPeople, which even supports free calling as well as texting service.
But there is significant issue for free messaging services. They don’t have concrete business model which can sustain the business. Some of the services try to ally with other services such as commerce and coupon. But it’s not enough to follow the explosive inscreasement of user traffic.
As we see in the case of Skype’s acquisition, mVoIP related business is a traditional power model but it needs a revenue source. Microsoft is making profit and the company needs a service which can satisfy mobile users’ demands at the same time. And now, Apple is preparing to provide a free messaging service in the near future.
Apple already has a user pool based on its powerful device line-up. And Apple gets more loyalty for its devices via the function of iMessage and iCloud. In the end, it will increase the connectivity between Apple users and will use this as a pivot for gathering power into its own channel.