Kakao goes after Google, Naver in translation service

An image of Kakao i translation service / Courtesy of Kakao

By Baek Byung-yeul

Kakao launched an upgraded version of its translation service and extended the number of languages offered, with an aim to improve its share in the translation market here where it falls behind its rivals Google and Naver, the internet firm said Wednesday.

The company has been coming up short in the translation market, which emerged as a test-bed of global IT firms' artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. It launched first translation service as a beta service in September 2017, which means it is not complete.

Naver is currently the leading mobile translation service in Korea. The firm said the number of monthly active users of its Papago translation mobile app was about 10 million in March with more than 20 million downloads.

While Naver has been leading the mobile translation service market in Korea, Google has dominated the web browser-based translation environment. According to data by Nielsen Koreanclick, the number of Google Translate service requests in March was around 2.47 million, about 800,000 more than Naver.

To compete with Naver and Google in the country's translation market, Kakao increased the number of translatable languages from six to 19, six languages more than Naver's Papago translation service. Available languages include Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Malaysian, French and Spanish.

Using AI technology, Kakao also improved the quality of translation. When translating a language into Korean, Kakao i can deliver the translation in both formal and informal language.

The Kakao i translation service is currently available through the firm's KakaoTalk mobile messenger service and portal website Daum.

Google and Naver are providing their translation services through mobile and web browser environments as well as mobile apps but Kakao said the firm has not decided whether to launch a mobile app that offers a translation feature.

“We are considering launching a translation app, but it is yet to be decided,” a Kakao spokeswoman said.