Kakao's users' interest in the conversational artificial intelligence (AI) service "Kanana," which began beta testing last month, is waning. It has been pointed out that operating as a separate application without integration with KakaoTalk is hindering service quality improvement and user expansion.
According to mobile analytics platform Mobile Index, the daily new installations of Kanana, which began beta service on the 8th of last month, recently fell below 100. On the 14th of this month, the number of new installations of Kanana was only 66. After reaching a peak of 18,995 installations on the 15th of last month, it has been continuously decreasing. This is in stark contrast to ChatGPT, which records more than 30,000 new installations a day.
One reason for the dwindling popularity of Kanana is the lack of integration with KakaoTalk. After users install the Kanana app, the quality of the personalized AI conversation service improves only if they accumulate conversational data. An IT industry official noted, "Kanana is designed to understand emotional context and provide customized feedback by remembering conversations over the long term. Accumulating conversation data is essential for this. Without immediately utilizing the conversation data accumulated on KakaoTalk, maintaining a separate app operation system like now will take a long time to enhance conversational service quality."
The fact that it is virtually difficult to utilize the group chat function, which Kakao pitched as a differentiation from AI services like ChatGPT, is also cited as a reason for the declining interest in Kanana. Kakao has previously introduced that its ability to summarize conversations and engage in discussions in group chats with multiple users is a strength of Kanana. However, due to the lack of integration with KakaoTalk, this group chat feature can only be used among Kanana subscribers. According to Mobile Index, as of the 14th of this month, the number of Kanana installations was recorded at 75,266.
Some in the industry suggest that Kakao separated Kanana from KakaoTalk to consider the operation of a subscription-based paid service product. In fact, in a conference call on earnings last November, Chung Shina, the CEO of Kakao, mentioned, "From a monetization perspective, we basically anticipate a subscription model, and we are still reviewing specific plans."
Another reason Kakao insists on maintaining Kanana's separation from KakaoTalk is to avoid the controversy surrounding conversation censorship. It could potentially lead to issues regarding conversation censorship on KakaoTalk during the process of learning conversation data for providing personalized services. Considering this, it seems Kakao opted for a separate app operation system that is less efficient at the moment. When signing up for Kanana, users agreed in the terms and conditions to allow the AI to learn from their conversations.
Currently, Kakao is offering Kanana in a beta testing version, aiming for an official version release within the year. Kakao plans to launch the official version once the service quality reaches a certain level through regular updates approximately every three weeks.