"The era of taste has come".. What the emergence of Kakao View means

Is the era of content curation really open?

With the advancement of Kakao and Naver, the two major mountain portals in Korea, the era of individual subscriptions to curated content has begun in earnest.

It seems clear that the way content is introduced and consumed according to someone's point of view and taste has become the current trend.

Kakao also understands this trend and launched Kakao View last year, which provides personalized subscription content instead of the search-based shop (#) on KakaoTalk.

Within three months of its release, 20,000 channels and 250,000 curation boards were produced, and he praised himself for activating the content ecosystem within KakaoTalk.

Thanks to the low barriers to entry and opportunities to generate revenue, as of last month, cumulative channels produced 150,000 pieces and curation boards produced 2.6 million pieces, showing tremendous quantitative growth.

But not long ago, a symbolic event occurred. The news tab, which occupied the main first screen of Daum mobile portal, was pushed to the third place, and Kakao View's 'MyView' and Discovery took the lead.

This can be seen as the premise that there is no problem even if professional creators and individual creators are subjected to infinite competition.

In addition, it is interpreted to mean that the person receiving the consumer's attention should appeal to the content quality and personal taste, but the role played by an expert or an individual does not matter much.

The era of large media outlets and portals arranging and managing content is coming to an end.

This means that if influential individuals and a small number of people can share their views and tastes, they can become creators and media themselves.

It means that now is the era of content that anyone can really create.

So, why has content curation become such an important trend?

About six months have passed since the launch of the Kakao View service.

At this point, I would like to talk about five things that the era of content curation that started through the Kakao View service suggests to us.
1. The era of 'individual'

We now belong to a differentiated society. It has become a society where 'alone' is accustomed to.

In the era of fragmentation of individuals, we prefer content recommended by people with similar tastes rather than information injected by others.

The reason for accessing the portal and the importance of news, which occupied the most of users' time, began to diminish.

After all, even a platform for the majority, such as a giant portal, is in a situation where it has to be transformed into a platform for individuals in order to take individual time.

Kakao understood this and reorganized the main page of the daum portal site. Starting with the mobile version, the PC version will also be expanded in the first half of this year.

2. The era when tastes become subscriptions

Jo Soo-yong, co-CEO of Kakao, introduced the background of the planning of 'Kakao View' in September last year.
"The era of editors who choose well and arrange them well has come"
"I hope that more content will meet with consumers through editors with various perspectives"
“I hope that good editors will publish articles that reflect their tastes and perspectives, and that media between individuals who appeal to them will be formed.”

(1) The center of taste, the editor, not the creator
'A person who picks out good things from likes' Magazine B defined the editor like this

The general consumer's eyesight has increased. Not only does it feel good to be good, but the ability to express why it is good and reinterpret it from your own point of view has become more important than anything else.

(2) It is easy to think that the tastes enjoyed by Generation Z are personal when it comes to the taste of the times.
'This movie is my favourite'
'This music is my taste'
Because it connects 'me' and 'taste' with the same words as 'sniping perfect taste'.
However, if you think about it, there are bound to be more shared 'tastes' in each era.

Home cafes, hiking, and Daku come to mind. In particular, he said, 'Even if you don't have a house, you have tastes and thoughts'.

Gen Zers are more likely to share and consume certain tastes together.

For this reason, Kakao View paid attention to the editors of Generation Z, who know how to pick out good content for their favorite content and spread it widely, creating a taste that can be shared by the times.

3. The era where taste becomes 'money'

Kakao View introduced a revenue generation program in November last year.

There are two major ways to generate revenue through 'content curation' and 'content advertisement'.

Content curation revenue is a method in which the view editor selects content based on taste and point of view, and earns revenue only by making a board and introducing it.

The purpose of Kakao View is to curate boards with various viewpoints and tastes, and it is said that the published board is evaluated by the degree of user reaction such as 'Like' and 'Share'.

It also reflects negative feedback. Next is content advertising revenue. These are Kakao's various content services, namely brunch, tea story, kakao TV, daum news, and content view.

It is to take the content created by these channels and pay the advertising revenue generated by the creator directly producing the board.

Kakao View actively encourages editorial activities just by looking at the revenue program.

Creators can also re-edit their content if they want to monetize it.

I need to create a board with perspectives. You must create a board to generate curation revenue and content advertising revenue.

Cases of generating profits with a relatively short time investment compared to creation are being uploaded one after another in video or text.

4. The era of community

 

It is an era where individuals become brands and communities. Being money means having an impact on consumers.

What does that influence mean in the content industry?

Perhaps it is a matter of 'how much time can be occupied' by users.

For example, the Metropolitan Museum of Art selected Netflix as a competitor, not the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Nike often sees Netflix as a competitor, not Adidas.

Because I think Netflix is ​​what makes people have neither time to go to art galleries nor time to exercise.

Now, can we continue to occupy people's time by simply making good content like Netflix?

So is it a matter of great influence? This is where 'community' comes in.

Content is no longer one-way, it is an era where content becomes content itself by creating a place where viewers can organically communicate, that is, a community.

It seems that Kakao View does not yet have content that can form a brand and community.

There are types of content and topics that people are interested in viewing.

However, that is not the content consumption method that Kakao View ultimately wants.

Kakao hopes to form a community where individual editors with tastes introduce and publish content, forming relationships with consumers and creating a forum for communication.

We want editors that have their own brand and influence to be born within KakaoView.

In fact, there are open chat and talk calendar functions where you can talk with editors.

There are also concerns about the emergence of Kakao View

Problems that may arise between the creator and the editor are drawn. In Kakao View, you can earn profits if you meet the conditions such as 100 subscribers or more and 10 or more boards published in the past year.

From a creator's point of view, someone may take your writing without permission and make money, but you may not generate any revenue for yourself.

This raises the issue of fairness.

The reason we love YouTubers who curate music and movies in their own way is that they put a lot of passion and effort into showing their point of view and taste.

Because curation shows the same passion and perfection as creation, you subscribe to them and spend your time consuming content.

If so, what factors are needed for KakaoView to create more influential editors and to consume more of their content?

First, there seems to be a need for guidance on the use of creator content and improvement of the revenue program.

Second, it is necessary to discover a lot of editors who are passionate about revealing their point of view and taste, and to actively form a culture that encourages their activities.

Now, it seems that public opinion has been formed that 'it is possible to quickly and easily make money just by editing'.

So far, we have looked at five things that the era of content curation that we have looked at with the advent of Kakao View means.

What this means is clear. It is no longer a flow to sit comfortably and feed content.

It should be accompanied by time to experience this and that and try to figure out what one likes and how best to define my taste.

It is accepted that we should become smarter content consumers.