Kakaotalk

Smartphone users are significantly increasing, and more apps are being created. Kakaotalk is one of the famous application in Korea. I would say it is one of the applications that literally all Koreans have!

Kakaotalk is an application that allows users to talk freely without using messaging data. It only takes the data usage. If you use WIFI, everything is free! There is a similar app in America called, What's App. These applications are globally used and becoming more famous to many people in the world! It is a great way to talk to people without paying international cost.

Out of many competitors in this application market, Kakaotalk took a first mover advantage. First mover advantage is not introduced in the chapter 5, but I think it is a important point to talk about and somehow it is related with concept of competitors. First, first mover advantage is an advantage that a business or a firm can have if it is first to enter the market. However, the drawback exists at the same time, it is called first mover disadvantage. A business or a firm needs to bear the cost of creating a business.

Kakaotalk was a new application that was introduced to the market in Korea. It pulled many users to the new kind of application. Currently, I use this application all the time to talk to my family, friend and even American friends in the states. It allows you to send not only picture, but also video, you can also make a voting system in a group chat to decide events, etc. It is a great app! But, it has experienced data errors in the past, and many users expressed a frustration, and the company had to apologize.

This application stepped over many other competitors in a early stage. Now it reached to the point that no other competitors can win over Kakaotalk. Kakaotak took its chance and experienced the first mover advantage.

Now, that you know the concept of first mover advantage, do you think a business should take this risk and pursuit its goal? What about first mover disadvantage?