The company has not been acquired, just the Path and Path Talk apps. I actually do not understand that part - what exactly does the company hope to do with Kong? How is the company supporting 40+ headcount now?
Well they just got a cash injection from selling Path & Path Talk so I can imagine that should help support 40+ headcount for a little while. Along with the $25m they raised a year ago.
TalkTo/Path Talk used human operators instead of advanced AI. So scaling such an app might be expensive in the long run. TalkTo's revenues were based on a "Premium" model, where users paid a small fee per month
Will the Path company pivot to another sector, as they sold both their main apps?
I'm Korean so let me explain about the company.
Daum KaKao is combined company of Daum communications & KaKao.
Daum Communications is an internet company, mainly focused on internet portal service like Yahoo!. (It is second largest portal in Korea, the first is Naver)
KaKao made a KaKaoTalk, which is dominant messaging app in South Korea.
Naver, which is the number one internet company in Korea has both of internet portal and messaging app (LINE, which is dominant messaging app in Japan and Taiwan) so Daum and KaKao are merged in 2014.
Daum KaKao now focusing on mobile service since it has dominant messaging app in Korea. The reason why they acquired Path is they want to enter Southeast Asia market, which Naver and Tencent WeChat already have largest portion. (Daum KaKao said that they acquired Path because of Indonesian market. Path has many users in Indonesia)
Yes, LINE already has many users in Spain and other Southeast Asia countries.
KakaoTalk is launched at 2010, before the smartphone market is matured. At the first time KaKaoTalk was made, Samsung and LG (both of them are Korean tech giant) dramatically produce many Android device, but there's no wonderful messaging app. (WhatsApp is not an free model, and other messaging app's quality it not that good) After KaKaotalk have gained lots of popularity, Naver made two messaging app named NaverTalk and LINE. NaverTalk based on Korean market and they failed since KakaoTalk already occupy all the smartphone. But LINE is based on Japan and they succeed, so Naver threw out NaverTalk and focused on LINE.
At this time, Daum (before merged with KaKao) made messaging app named MyPeople. They have many users in Korea, but didn't make a profit because of KaKaoTalk. And MyPeople also removed from the market after Daum merged with Kakao.
I've heard of KakaoTalk before; it's one of the most popular messaging applications in South Korea. According to Wikipedia it's used by 93% of smartphone owners in South Korea [1]. Daum Kakao is the parent company, and looks to have their fingers in a lot of generic web services pies.
In turn, KakaoTalk is extremely similar to LINE, an application developed by the Japanese subsidiary of Daum's rival Naver. LINE seems to dominate the Japanese messenging market almost as strongly as KKT dominates South Korea (it's probably not possible to be functional socially without a KKT account there).
I've lived in Korea, my experience was you gave out phone numbers when meeting new people, KakaoTalk automatically scans new contacts and adds them to your KakaoTalk contacts and all subsequent texting and photo sharing was through KakaoTalk.
I only texted one person regularly while I lived there, my boss; my boss had a KakaoTalk account but didn't use it (with me at least).
I still use it, it's a very good messaging application with some pretty well implemented features (and excellent custom emojis!).
KakaoTalk is very well realized and really fun to use; the privacy side leaves me queasy, though. KakaoTalk conversations are known to be under government surveillance, and the KCSC is a troublesome institution in general (cf. http://opennetkorea.org/en/wp/administrative-censorship).
Currently living in Japan, and I haven't given my phone number out to anyone yet. It's all exchanging LINE info (mostly using the QR functionality, sometimes just the ID). Almost everyone has a Facebook, but I don't think the messaging component is widely used. Almost all messaging, and even most voice calls, go through LINE.
Which I always thought was strange, given LINE generally provided a better experience and Naver is stronger in South Korea than Daum, at least in the search provider/maps areas.
Well, KakaoTalk was first -- they launched in 2010, and NHN launched LINE to the Japanese public in mid-2011. I'm actually not sure when or in what capacity Naver tried to port it to the Korean market. It would have needed localization beyond just UI translation. I've only used LINE for business, but I imagine the stickers (large emoji) that are a big part of the user experience of both apps when used casually were initially tuned for Japanese emoji culture (which has a fairly rich, complex history, that is intertwined with various popular Japanese characters and memes). So I'm guessing there was a significant time gap.
Saying KakaoTalk is the most popular app in SK is a huge understatement. It's like mode of communication there, seeing the number of hours people spend on their phones.
S Korea had some surprising early social network services before myspace ( est 2003) or facebook (2004). Cyworld (est 1999) was very popular social network service until it stagnated to the point where it now has about 40 or so employees only. Afaik, pretty much anyone with a computer in S Korea had an account at one point. Btw, I'm not suggesting myspace or facebook were copycats at all.
I'm sure there's some other social network service that was launched before all of the above but just never got lucky enough to grow.
So the board/investors approved this and since it does nothing for them Path, Inc. has to have a better plan going forward. Their investors have been on a roller coaster ride for a while. I wonder if they recouped what they paid for TalkTo in the deal?
Path's failure is a fitting reminder of the likely outcome of making your key metrics friendships and moments rather than revenue. No doubt this is just one of many overfunded social apps that will fall into the abyss this year.
This is about as empty as criticism could get. If a company is solely focus on revenue then it's "short sighted and make bad product". Otherwise they're "over funded without business plan". You can't win anyway huh?
I have no idea on why any of those social/ mobile apps is useful and I have never used Path either. But please keep the no substance criticism to a minimum please.
The title needs to be changed to be more clear, Path and Path talk the apps were acquired, the company is going to produce other apps and support an app they already have in the market called "Kong".
Dan, though I will continue to abide by your rules, I respectfully disagree with your choice here. Dave Morin is a public figure; I think the linked article is closer to appropriate satire than personal attack.
Clarifying question: It wouldn't be appropriate to call a mocking of an individual socially marginal person a satire; but is it correct to label a satire a personal attack?
Signals the official end of web 2.0 to me. A whimper instead of a bang.
Path is so web 2.0 and the worst look to have this year is to be old when we're at the beginning of a third wave full of youngsters that wouldn't be caught dead trying to update their path timeline.
Path Talk would have been an expensive land war that required a big sales army to win over one small shop at a time.
So if Path is to Facebook then Kong is to Snapchat.
If Marky Mark can't buy Snapchat then buying a second-run owned by a former insider ain't too bad either.
That's the end game.
Or, just rely on that Martha Stewart of Silicon Valley money to finally roll in.
