Kakao extends rivalry with Naver into digital healthcare

Kakao Corp., an operator of South Korea's top mobile messenger app KakaoTalk, has set its sights on the digital healthcare market, launching an in-house online healthcare platform. 

The mobile giant's advance into the new business signals that its intense rivalry with the country's largest online portal Naver Corp. will extend into the field of global healthcare services. In South Korea, remote clinical services are illegal.

Kakao's digital healthcare platform, established as a new company in the company (CIC), will offer lifecycle-based smart healthcare services, using wearable devices and the internet of things and utilizing Kakao's digital service experience, Kakao said on Thursday.

To lead the new CIC, the company appointed Hwang Hee, a former professor of the pediatrics department and the neuroscience center of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital.

Before the appointment, Hwang served as vice president of Easycare Tech, a digital aged care startup backed by Seoul National University Hospital. In 2019, he was listed among Innovation Leaders of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), a US-based non-profit advisory group.

The launch of the healthcare platform comes a month after Kakao acquired a 20% stake for 15 billion won in Humanscape Co., a Korean developer of medical applications, which unveiled an app for plastic surgery aftercare services.

Back in 2018, Kakao took its first step toward the healthcare sector, setting up a medical data joint venture with Seoul Asan Hospital and Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Co. Seoul Asan Hospital is one of the country's top five general hospitals, founded by the late Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung.

The new Kakao platform plans to team up with startups and relevant institutions to establish a digital healthcare ecosystem.

NAVER'S EXPANSIONARY MOVES

Naver is already involved in the remote medical service business in Japan through its affiliate LINE Corp. LINE and M3 Inc., a Sony affiliate, jointly launched an online healthcare venture, LINE Healthcare Corp., in 2019.

This year, Naver entered the big data-based healthcare industry by acquiring a 10% stake in ezCaretech for about 30 billion won. After the investment, it became the second-largest shareholder in the domestic medical IT service provider, after the top shareholder Seoul National University Hospital.

At the start of this year, the online portal hired a Yonsei University Severance Hospital robotic surgery specialist, Rha Koon-ho, as chief of its healthcare research institute. Last month, Naver invested 10 billion won in Lunit Inc., a Korean developer of AI-based diagnostic tools for cancer screening.

Write to Joo-wan Kim at kjwan@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.