**Kakao Unveils 2025 Performance of ‘Project Dangol’ for Small Business Digital Transformation**
Kakao has shared the 2025 performance results of its ‘Project Dangol’, which supports the digital transformation of small businesses. This year, Kakao expanded its support to a regional level, enhancing customized education and marketing programs to boost regional economies and improve the digital capabilities of small business owners.
Since its inception in 2022, ‘Project Dangol’ has been a leading initiative by Kakao to provide digital transformation education and online/offline promotion support, directly visiting traditional markets and local shopping districts. This year alone, Kakao visited 59 business districts nationwide, providing education to approximately 1,265 shop owners—a 43% increase compared to last year.
Cumulatively, 4,112 merchants from 286 business areas—including 251 markets and 35 shopping districts—have participated in the program. Over 4,000 KakaoTalk channels have been established, resulting in approximately 990,000 customers registering as channel friends, thus building a foundation for online communication.
Kakao also operates the ‘Talk Channel Message Support’ program to help small business owners communicate with customers. This year’s funding exceeded 7 billion KRW, with total accumulated support reaching 33.4 billion KRW. To date, more than 74,000 small business owners have benefited, and those with annual sales below 1 billion KRW can continually apply through the official Kakao Project Dangol Talk Channel.
The newly introduced ‘Dangol Bus’, a free shuttle connecting local business districts with customers, played a significant role in revitalizing local business areas. Launched on September 18 starting in Mokpo, it operated 104 times over 46 days across four regions, including Gongju, Osong, and Mungyeong, attracting over 2,400 passengers who contributed to increased local sales. Additionally, new region-specific programs, such as operating local youth mentors (digital supporters), organizing consumer promotion events like ‘Dangol Day’, and live commerce practice for online sales expansion, have been well-received.
To wrap up the business activities, performance-sharing meetings were held in nine key operational regions, including Namyangju, Mungyeong, Wonju, Anseong, Mokpo, Iksan, Gongju, Chungju, and Seoul’s Seongbuk-gu, where results and best cases were shared. Among the attendees, the representative from SongSong House in Chungju mentioned the usefulness of KakaoTalk channels for store promotion and event announcements, which positively impacted sales. Similarly, the representative from EunA House in Mokpo expressed gained confidence in expanding online sales through live commerce.
Kakao plans to further enhance ‘Project Dangol’ next year by expanding support regions and programs. This includes improving digital capability enhancement programs using AI, creating opportunities to share success stories, and expanding ‘Dangol Bus’ lines to support regional visitor influx.
Kakao’s CEO, Jeong Shin-a, stated, “We have supported over 74,000 small business owners with Talk Channel message dispatch costs through ‘Project Dangol’ and have been dedicated to helping small businesses establish a digital foundation by directly reaching out to business areas nationwide. We will continue to advance our win-win activities that provide practical benefits to regional economies and small business owners, leveraging technology and platforms like AI-enhanced education.”
In addition, on November 6, Kakao held the ‘Project Dangol Supporters Meet-up Day’ at Kakao Pangyo Agit, an event aimed at strengthening the capabilities of young regional supporters. The event included external speaker lectures, business performance sharing, best practice presentations, and networking programs.