[DigitalToday reporter Ho-jung Lee] Kakao has rolled out a 4,900-won-a-month integrated membership, heating up competition in paid memberships among domestic platforms. While Naver has expanded its membership around shopping rewards and Coupang around delivery and food delivery, Kakao has chosen a strategy of linking multiple services based on KakaoTalk.

Kakao on Wednesday launched “Kakao Membership,” which costs 4,900 won a month, and began first-come, first-served sign-ups for a small group of users. It is Kakao’s first integrated membership, linking Gift, Tokdeal, Kakao Pay, Melon, KakaoPage, emoticons, Tok Cloud, Kakao Pay Insurance and Kakao Pay Securities, among others.

Subscribers earn shopping points worth 0.5 to 5 percent of the payment amount, up to 20,000 points per month, at Gift and Tokdeal regardless of payment method. If they pay for Gift and Tokdeal with Kakao Pay Money, they can earn 0.5 to 1 percent. Offline, they can earn 0.5 to 2 percent in Kakao Pay points, up to 50,000 points per month.

For content, subscribers can choose each month either Emoticon Plus worth 3,900 won a month or 130 GB of Tok Cloud. The membership also offers 2,000 cash for KakaoPage, cash back of up to 4,900 won on domestic stock selling fees at Kakao Pay Securities, compensation of up to 70,000 won for broken mobile phone screens, and discounted subscriptions for Melon Streaming Lite.

New subscribers can receive domestic stocks worth 4,900 won once and Melon cash worth a total of 6,000 won. Members under age 19 will receive a 5,000-won Olive Young discount coupon instead of domestic stocks.

Same 4,900 won...Naver expands from shopping to content and delivery

Naver is the closest direct comparison to Kakao. Naver Plus Membership also charges 4,900 won per month. Users can earn up to 5 percent in Naver Pay points when they use eligible products and services in Naver Shopping, Reservations and Travel. Based on official guidance, 5 percent applies to monthly payments up to 200,000 won, and 2 percent applies from more than 200,000 won up to 3,000,000 won.

Benefits that began with shopping have expanded to content and delivery. Users can choose one of Netflix ad-supported Standard, Spotify Premium Basic, PC Game Pass, or Webtoon and Series cookies each month. An additional benefit provides 10 Webtoon and Series cookies and 80 GB of Mybox.

N Delivery offers free shipping and returns on orders of 10,000 won or more, and Kurly N Mart offers free dawn and same-day delivery of fresh food to membership users.

The push to strengthen commerce has also shown up in earnings. Naver’s platform revenue in the second quarter was 1.9 trillion won, up 12.3 percent from a year earlier. Within that, service revenue rose 31.3 percent as growth in the commerce ecosystem accelerated on the back of strengthening Naver Plus Store and membership, and N Delivery. Naver’s total revenue over the same period was 3.39 trillion won, up 16.2 percent.

Naver is strengthening a structure that expands usage from shopping rewards to content and delivery.

Coupang 7,890 won...delivery and food delivery over points

Coupang’s Wow Membership takes a different approach. The monthly fee is 7,890 won, higher than Kakao and Naver, but it places benefits around shipping and food delivery rather than points accumulation.

Wow members can get free shipping even if they buy just one Rocket Delivery item. Rocket Fresh can be ordered with purchases of 15,000 won or more in eligible delivery areas and offers dawn delivery of fresh food. General Rocket Delivery items can be returned free for 30 days after arrival, limited to unused products. Rocket Fresh and Rocket Global are excluded from the 30-day free return program. Coupang Eats also offers free Wow delivery in eligible areas and stores.

The current 7,890-won monthly fee is the price Coupang announced in April 2024. It applied to new members starting that month, and existing members’ monthly fees were changed sequentially from August that year according to each person’s billing cycle.

Coupang is placing more weight on lowering cost burdens for frequently used services such as shopping and food delivery than on points accumulation.

Why Kakao is launching a membership now

One notable feature of Kakao Membership is that reward benefits are concentrated on Gift, Tokdeal and Kakao Pay.

KakaoTalk’s monthly active users (MAU) in South Korea in the second quarter stood at 49.63 million. With a large user base already secured, the importance of connecting KakaoTalk users to usage and spending in other services is seen as having grown.

Commerce in particular is showing growth. In the second quarter, combined transaction volume for Tokbiz commerce, including Gift, was 2.7 trillion won, up 9 percent from a year earlier. Transaction volume for self-purchases within Gift also rose 39 percent. This reflects a trend in which usage that had centered on gifting is expanding to self-purchases.

Providing shopping points for Gift and Tokdeal purchases in this membership and accumulating Kakao Pay points for Kakao Pay Money payments also aligns with that trend. Kakao Pay points can be used not only at Gift and Tokdeal but also offline at convenience stores and cafes.

Until now, Kakao’s paid subscription services have been split by service, such as Emoticon Plus and Melon. This time, it bundled shopping and payments, content, and finance and insurance into one integrated membership.

Kakao’s goal in launching the membership is also seen as not being limited to securing a 4,900-won monthly subscription fee. More weight is placed on linking KakaoTalk users to Gift, Tokdeal, Kakao Pay, content and financial services to increase cross-use between services.

Latecomer Kakao faces the question of why users stay

Kakao still faces the task of creating reasons to keep subscribers paying even after it attracts sign-ups.

Naver has expanded repeated use cases from shopping rewards to content and delivery, and Coupang bundled services with high frequency of use such as delivery and food delivery into its membership. Kakao also needs to continuously create benefits users can feel even after one-off benefits such as the stocks and Melon cash offered at sign-up.

Ultimately, the success or failure of Kakao Membership appears to depend not on its user base of 49.63 million but on whether it can create reasons for them to pay 4,900 won each month and continue subscribing. Another key question is whether usage that begins at Gift, Tokdeal and Kakao Pay actually expands to other services such as content and finance.

Kakao plans to expand the services covered in the future. Min-gyu Kim (김민규), performance leader at Kakao, said, "We will expand benefits by linking with various services in the future, and we will offer highly scarce value that can be enjoyed only through Kakao Membership."