Embassy of the Republic of Korea to the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Whereas WhatsApp has become the dominant messaging application in the Netherlands, in Korea this role is played by KakaoTalk.
Research firm eMarketer shows that in South Korea there is a smartphone penetration rate of 73%, while Nielsen Media Research indicates that 93% of those smartphone owners use the mobile messaging application KakaoTalk.
Kakao anticipates its revenue for 2013 to end up at $200 million (€145 million), which is a sharp increase in relation to the $42 million (€30 million) the year before.
Since there is only little market space to conquer anymore in South Korea, Kakao wants to further spread its wings overseas, Kakao’s CEO Sirgoo Lee said: “We are looking at markets where there isn’t a predominant player, but smartphones are on the rise.”
Currently KakaoTalk has 130 million users worldwide. WhatsApp has 400 million active users around the globe.

For further reading, please refer to:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2013-12-22/with-200-million-in-revenue-south-korea-s-top-messaging-app-is-all-smiley-faces.html