Kakao Incorporates New Hair Salon, Relief Driver Apps For 2016

by Dalal Nasif / Feb 08, 2016 10:55 AM EST

South Koreans can now hire stylist with a push of a button through Kakao's new mobile services. (Photo by Chung Sung Jun/Getty Images)

Despite reported losses from spending for newly acquired services, Korea's most popular mobile messaging platform Kakao officially branched out into hair beauty and driving businesses.

These two services will commence Kakao's move to operate Online to Offline (O2O) markets. Users can now book a salon or hail a chauffeur through the company's application. Payment for these services can also be made through the Kakao app.

"Kakao Driver, the mobile chauffeur service, will be released in the first half of this year," stated Choi Se Hoon, CFO of Kakao, as reported in Korea Joong Ang Daily. "The application will be made available to drivers next month, and users will get access in the first half of the year."

The Inside Retail Asia News reported that Kakao previously bought a beauty solution start-up named Hasys last October through K-Venture Group. The company will launch its own Kakao Hairshop that will make use of the expertise of the staff at the said salon, providing solutions through client managers such as "Hair Zzang" and "Beauty Zzang."

"We will test the platform within the first quarter and officially launch the service within this year," Choi estimated. The new application services will also provide discounts and promotions for patrons. The app also aims to help them save time by booking appointments ahead and avoid getting stranded in the waiting area.

Hasys has over 9,000 beauty-related stores that will most likely partner with Kakao for the app, which currently has 2,000 salon affiliates already enrolled in the database.

Kakao is predicted to rake in a five percent commission per user reservation mad through the mobile application.

With Kakao's over 40 million user base at the present and the fast-paced trend in hair and beauty, the company is hoping that it could recover from 70 percent profit loss they faced in 2015.

The company made $17 million in operating profit last year. They are still coping with the $183 million operating costs they expended to develop their new platforms.

There are many businesses linked with Kakao such as Air France, wrote Korea Times. Through a Kakao-powered app, customers can ask questions regarding Air France flight schedules for an entire day. Unfortunately, the operational budgets for most of these business platforms exceeded the actual sales they made in the previous year.