As Kakao released the ’empathy sticker’ on the KakaoTalk personal profile area on the 7th, which presses ‘Like’ like Instagram, users are giving various reactions.
Kakao explained that this service was planned by reflecting the usability of users who want to communicate in a simple way. While some users responded positively, saying, “It’s nice to be able to communicate usefully even though I’m busy,” some said it was burdensome, saying, “It can be seen as a measure of popularity.”
“Useful function even though I’m busy” VS “Buying 1,000 won for each heart”
According to the industry on the 8th, a new ’empathy sticker’ function was recently introduced in KakaoTalk profiles. Users can select and decorate a sticker containing the desired emotion among a total of 48 emoticons in the background area of their personal profile. There are a total of 4 types: 3 simple empathy types and 1 slide type that can contain text. Just select the empathy sticker you want, resize it, and place it in your profile area.
If you press ‘Edit’ in your personal profile, you can immediately attach empathy stickers by pressing the heart-shaped tab on the right side of the camera-shaped tab where you can change your profile picture. An official from Kakao said, “In addition to text communication, this service was planned so that people can feel free to share comfort and empathy by attaching stickers.” It is interpreted as reflecting the recent tendency of users who prefer ‘light communication’ rather than having a conversation through the message chat window. Once you empathize, it lasts for 7 days, and you can cancel the sympathy.
User reactions have been somewhat mixed. Some users gave a favorable review, saying that it was a “new and interesting function,” but some showed a negative reaction, saying that it was an “inconvenient and burdensome function.”
A 20-year-old KakaoTalk user said, “It’s a convenient feature that allows you to intuitively grasp a friend’s current status at a glance,” adding, “It seems like a useful service because you can share your feelings simply by pressing ‘Sympathy’ in a busy day.” Another user also said, “It seems that there is an advantage in being able to communicate with each other without burden because it is not possible to know the details of a third person’s sympathy.” I think,” he added.
The average length of stay per KakaoTalk is 13 minutes… Expectation of ‘lock-in effect’
However, there is also an opinion that it is a “burdened function”. A user in his 30s said, “I’ve been in sales for over 10 years, and I already have more than 2,000 acquaintances on my Kakao Talk friends list. It’s annoying to take care of a lot of people, including friends and family, seniors and juniors at work, and business partners.” A housewife in her 40s said, “I don’t use SNS (social network service), but I feel burdened because I have a similar function.”
Kakao designed it so that only the owner of the KakaoTalk profile can check the friend who clicked the ‘Sympathy’ sticker. Friends who visit the profile cannot know who sympathized with them, so privacy can be protected. The empathy mark can be pressed indefinitely without a limit on the number of times. In the case of young student users who are sensitive to friendship, there are cases where they feel burdened.
One middle school student user said, “My friends will do it, but I think the number of sympathies will be a concern.” In addition to this, some netizens in the Internet community responded by saying, “Should I pay for popularity now?” “Should I sell 1,000 won per empathy?” Please release a light version of Kakao Talk. It is interpreted as showing fatigue from the recently increased KakaoTalk service.
It is observed that the reason why Kakao is trying to reorganize Kakao Talk is because of the low stay time compared to the high usage rate. According to the ‘Social Media Search Portal Trend Report 2022’ released by the data platform Open Survey in March, the frequency of use of KakaoTalk ranked first with an average of 8.6 times a day, but the average usage time per time was 50.3 minutes, followed by YouTube (50.3 minutes) and TikTok. (32.8 minutes), Naver (25.4 minutes), and Instagram (18.2 minutes). The longer KakaoTalk users stay on the service, the more time they spend exposed to the business board, which increases their revenue.
As the communication function through the profile is activated, related sales such as emoticons and gift-giving may also increase. The introduction of empathy stickers is one of the KakaoTalk reform plans announced by Kakao in May. In the future, Kakao plans to update the function so that it is possible to easily ‘gift’ in the profile area. A Kakao official said, “There are no additional KakaoTalk reforms within this year.”
Reporter Jo Ara Hankyung.com [email protected]