Daum Kakao takes over childcare solution provider

South Korea's top mobile messenger operator Daum Kakao Corp. said Monday it has purchased a whole stake in Kids Note Inc., a local childcare solutions provider, in line with its efforts to expand its "online to offline (O2O)" business portfolio.

Under the move, Daum Kakao plans to offer childcare application services to 14,000 local kindergarten, private institutions, and other childcare-related institutions in South Korea. The companies did not reveal the size of the deal.

Kids Note allows institutions to provide parents with information regarding to their children, including meal plans and other important announcements. The app had 300,000 monthly users at the end of December.

"Kids Note, the venture that first tapped the smart announcement system, has been growing rapidly on the back of trust earned from education bodies and parents," Daum Kakao said. "It will be able to provide better services on the back of Daum Kakao's communication platforms and O2O businesses."

Daum Kakao added Kids Note will be independently managed, and will provide the company with know-how in marketing and research.

Daum Kakao was created in October last year out of a merger between Kakao Corp. and portal service Daum Communications Corp.

Upon its launch, the entity declared its key business strategy is connecting "people to people," "people and information," "online and offline" and "people and objects." (Yonhap)