Kakao migrates global webtoon service environment to Google Cloud

South Korea's Kakao Entertainment Corp., a unit of South Korea’s mobile platform giant Kakao Corp. is joining forces with Google Cloud to globally expand its webtoon, online comic strips. 

Google Cloud announced on Friday its plans to migrate Kakao Entertainment's global service operation environment for its webtoon to its platform and expand collaboration between the two companies.

Kakao Entertainment and Google Cloud formed a partnership in November 2022, and have since continued migration and expansion of the Google Cloud Platform. As a first achievement, Kakao Entertainment's global service environment was fully transferred to Google Cloud earlier this year.

During the migration to Google Cloud, the South Korean company experienced significant cost savings from the initial pilot project and minimized architectural changes, enabling a smooth transition.

Throughout the entire migration process, Google Cloud provided basic Google Cloud Platform training and in-depth technical sessions to Kakao developers and engineers, supporting the seamless migration of large-scale workloads in Southeast Asia and Korea.

To enhance its personalized service capabilities, including search and recommendation features, which are highly regarded in the media and entertainment industry, Kakao Entertainment is considering adopting Google Cloud's data and AI solutions. The company is also exploring collaboration opportunities with Google Cloud across various business areas.

"We aim to optimize operational costs while delivering high-quality content experiences. through our collaboration with Google Cloud,” chief technology officer of Kakao Entertainment Kim Ki-beom said.

"Google Cloud provides the best infrastructure and AI technology to enable media companies to deliver the best content and entertainment experiences to consumers worldwide,” general manager (vice president) of Google Cloud Asia-Pacific Karan Bajwa expressed the significance of their partnership.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com