Lim Ji-hoon, Kakao CEO, "We will focus on AI eco system expansion with partner companies"
Kim Soo Yeon | newsnews@ | 2017-09-22 11:27:08



2nd Anniversary of Kakao CEO-Lim Ji-hoon

[Digital Times, Kim Soo-yeon] "We will expand Kakao Artificial Intelligence (AI) ecosystem with our partners."

It is the second anniversary of the inauguration of a young CEO in 1980 who led the second-largest domestic portal, Kakao, Lim Ji-hoon, CEO of Kakao, revealed a vision for the Kakao Artificial Intelligence (AI) project at a meeting held at the Cacao Pangyo Office in Sungnam, Gyeonggi Province on the afternoon of September 20.

At the first meeting after his inauguration two years ago, he revealed `Implement mobile 2.0 through online-offline link (O2O) business`. Mobile 2.0 means that all real-world economic activity can be done with one smartphone. In the end, however, Mr. Lim explained that he did not develop or operate the remaining O2O businesses such as taxi assistance service, except for mobility business such as taxi and agency service, at the beginning of this year.

Lee, who was inaugurated two years after his inauguration, presented a new vision of constructing AI ecosystem centered on `partner`.

Lim said, "The philosophy of Kakao is to grow with good partners. It is best to start using the core AI technologies that cacao has with its partners, and then everyone will have access to the open Cacao AI App Programming Interface (API) will be able to produce good results.¡±

Kakao released the "Kakao AI ecosystem structure map" on the morning of the conference, and Lim has spent the first half of the event explaining the structure. The company plans to open its core AI technology to outside developers and operators from next year.

It is to build a so called ¡®Kakao I Open Builder¡¯ that anyone can easily apply AI technology and Kakao services to services and products, and increase the number of applications of Kakao. Kakao I is an integrated AI platform that serves as the brain of Kakao AI services.

Lim also showed pride in AI technology. He mentioned, "In 2010, we provided voice recognition and voice search for the first time in Korea following the portal. To recognize, synthesize and understand speech, we need AI technology such as machine learning. Three years ago, we applied machine learning technology in the process of implementing personalization services in the following portal. Deep learning technology was applied to the flower search service launched in 2015," he added. Deep learning is a technology that enables a computer to think and learn like a human being, and Machine Learning is a technology that gives a machine the ability to learn by using large amounts of data and algorithms.

Currently, Kakao is operating its AI business in two ways: the Kakao brain, which is responsible for research and development of the original technology, and the internal AI business, which applies AI technology to internal and external services. Kim Bum-soo, chairman of the board of the Kakao brains, and Vice President Kim Byung-hak, the head of the internal AI business in Kakao.

Lee emphasized the role of `partner` in strengthening overseas business. "Kakao believes in the power of Korea`s content and has the ability to show it overseas. We will help our partners achieve great results not only in Korea but also overseas. We have sowed seeds from 2016, and in a single line, it was a way for Korea, such as games, emoticons, Webtoons, and web novels, to go abroad with strong content in terms of overseas business," said Pearl Abys, The Black Desert has achieved great results in North America and Europe, and we are adding games to be distributed to this market through our North American and European subsidiary base. It is our ambition to increase our portion of overseas content business.¡±

Meanwhile, Lim concluded the meeting by saying, "I think that a company is a living creature. In particular, it is not a thing to say that people are not machines. It is my job to create an atmosphere where we can go.¡± He also said, ¡°I do not think there is anything to be said about the second anniversary. Once inside, we have to talk to the leaders, the employees and discuss what we should do, what I should do to help them, I have been talking about how to allocate resources, and once the meeting is over, it will start again in the morning."

By Kim Soo Yeon newsnews@


[ copyright ¨Ï The Digitaltimes ]