Google stops KakaoTalk updates over violation of external payment policy

Alphabet Inc.’s Google has halted updates to Kakao Corp.'s KakaoTalk, South Korea's most popular messaging app. 

An employee of Kakao told The Korea Economic Daily on Tuesday that Google denied the review of the app's latest version late last month. 

The decision by Google follows Kakao’s continued use of an external payment link in its Android app, despite the latest in-app payment policy by the US tech juggernaut.

The new policy mandates developers to sell digital goods and services using either Google’s first-party billing system or a third-party payment option.

The latest KakaoTalk version available on Google PlayStore is 9.8.0 while the one on the Apple AppStore is the updated 9.8.6 version. 

“As of July 1, we have been instructing our users to download the latest version through search engines to minimize their inconvenience,” the Kakao employee said. 

Google earlier announced that apps that not compliant with its payment policy will be removed from Google Play starting June 1. 

The company also previously agreed to comply with South Korea’s in-app payment law by allowing third-party payment systems that would incur up to 26% in fees. Using Google’s in-app purchase would incur up to 30% fees. 

But developers still cannot add links that direct users to their own websites to bypass Google’s billing entirely.

Last August, the South Korean parliament passed the world's first bill to ban Google, Apple Inc., and other app store operators from forcing certain payment schemes like Google's in-app billing system on app developers.

Nearly all of the 188 members of parliament who attended the plenary session voted for the revisions of the country’s Telecommunications Business Act (TBA).

Following Google's latest policy change, app developers have increased their paid subscription and service fees on GooglePlay to make up for the 15-30% commissions. 

KakaoTalk is one of them.

The platform increased the monthly subscription fee of Emoticon Plus from 4,900 won ($3.75) to 5,700 won ($4.36). 

The KakaoTalk app does provide, however, a link to a payment website where users can pay just 3,900 won for the same service. 

Android users of KakaoTalk can download the latest version by searching for it on Daum, a web portal owned by Kakao. 

All eyes are on whether Google will delete KakaoTalk from its GooglePlay ecosystem altogether. 

In this case, experts expect the Korea Communications Commission to get involved. 

The commission said it is currently reviewing if Google’s refusal to review the KakaoTalk updates violates South Korean law. 

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.