Mobile giant Kakao officially rereleased its Plus Friend service today, merging its current and Yellow ID users together.
Plus Friend was originally launched in 2011 for large businesses and celebrities to market themselves and connect with fans on Kakao Talk. In 2014, it also created “Yellow ID”, which allowed small and medium-sized business to sign up for their own social channels on the platform. As of today, 490,000 Yellow ID accounts have been transferred to Plus Friend, a service which currently has 22.9 million users in total.
The revamped version was opened following a successful beta trial that began in July last year and involved 200 partner companies. Now, anyone can sign up for a Plus Friend account through the Kakao website or Kakao Talk.
The platform itself has also been upgraded, and lets fans message businesses one-on-one. Operators can select designated hours for when they can be contacted by customers, and also set up automatic answers for common questions.
Plus Friend has come a long way since 2011, and now acts more like the business pages that you’re used to on platforms like Facebook. Content such as images and videos can be uploaded, and users can like, comment on, and share content. A notification center helps managers keep track of messages and other data, which can be accessed on both PC and mobile.
Kakao says that it will soon be adding ordering, purchasing and booking functions for Plus Friend businesses, a feature that is already being trialed with several food franchises.
“We plan to bolster the competitiveness of our platform so that users and businesses can both accomplish whatever they want through Kakao Talk,” said Kakao CEO Jimmy Rim. “We will continue to develop so that all business needs are met through Plus Friend, including collecting information and maintaining customers, as well as ordering, purchasing and bookings.”
