Kakao Healthcare to launch blood sugar managing app in Q3

• Published date: 02 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

Kakao Healthcare, a subsidiary of internet company Kakao, revealed a detailed vision for digital healthcare, saying it will launch a blood sugar management app in the third quarter of this year, according to the CEO, Thursday.

"Digital healthcare has emerged as a lucrative business," Hwang Hee, CEO of Kakao Healthcare, said during a press conference at Kakao's building in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.

The business is divided into prevention, treatment and aftercare. Many industry indicators show the market size of this business is around 100 trillion won ($77 billion) and will grow to 700 trillion won, which will be bigger than the semiconductor business," Hwang said.

"Currently, the government is focusing more on treatment, but how to create value and develop the market in terms of prevention and aftercare will be what both the country and society want," he added.

To make digital healthcare profitable, Hwang said the company decided to focus on managing metabolic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, hoping to create business opportunities involving these ailments that require daily care when combined with its mobile technology.

Kakao has selected digital healthcare as another growth engine. As part of the plan, Kakao Healthcare was established in March 2022 and Hwang, a professor of pediatrics at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, was appointed as its CEO.

"We aim to pursue a healthcare business based on Kakao's strengths. Kakao is good at technologies that make it convenient for users to do things that they were...