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Daum and KakaoTalk merge
Daum与KakaoTalk合并
Getting the message
获取消息
The latest tie-up between messaging apps and broader online firms
通信应用程序与大型互联网公司的最新联合。
IN THEORY Daum, an internet portal in South Korea, is acquiring Kakao, a startup whose messaging app, KakaoTalk, is on most of the country's smartphones. In practice, it is the other way around: the merger unveiled on May 26th gives Kakao's shareholders the lion's share of the new company, although Daum has more revenue, profits and staff, plus a stockmarket listing. The deal, valuing Kakao at $3 billion-odd, shows that messaging apps are still hot property.
Daum作为韩国的互联网门户网站，合并新兴公司—kakao，存在于大多数国家的智能手机中的消息应用程序。事实上是这样的情况：合并的消息于五月二十六日公布，给予kakao的新公司股东以最大份额，虽然Daum拥有更多的收入，利润和员工，再加上，上市时kakao价值30多亿美元，这也标志着通信程序仍然是朝阳产业。
Hottest of all is WhatsApp, a Silicon Valley startup with 500m users, which Facebook bought in February for a staggering $19 billion in cash and shares.The same month Rakuten, a Japanese internet firm, paid $900m for Viber, founded by Israelis but based in Cyprus. Alibaba, a Chinese online giant, paid $215m for a slice of Tango, another Silicon Valley firm, in March. Tencent, Alibaba's rival, owns WeChat, which has almost 400m users. It also runs QQ, an older messaging service, and has a stake in Kakao.
最热的是WhatsApp，这个拥有5亿用户的硅谷创业公司。二月份，facebook惊人地用190亿美元的现金和股票将其收购。当月，日本互联网公司乐天，支付9亿美元收购由以色列人建立，以塞浦路斯为基地的Viber。3月，中国网络巨头阿里巴巴，为另一个硅谷公司Tango支付215亿美元。阿里巴巴的竞争对手腾讯公司，旗下的微信拥有近4亿用户，老通讯服务QQ也在运营，并拥有kakao的股份。
The South Korean deal means yet another pairing of a broader internet company and a messaging startup. The youngsters seek extra heft—for instance, like Kakao, in marketing. The oldies get a trendy mobile product. Daum doubtless hopes that KakaoTalk, which is installed and registered on 145m devices, will help it combat Naver, South Korea's leading portal. South Koreans do not just use the app to chat: it is also a popular platform for mobile games, from which Kakao makes most of its money, and for sending both digital and physical gifts. Naver, too, owns a messaging app, Line, with 400m users, but it is based in Japan.
韩国的这次交易意味着迄今为止又一个一个大型互联网公司和一个新兴通信公司的配对。年轻者寻求额外有分量的依托，就像市场上的kakao。老者将得到一个时髦的手机产品。Daum无疑希望kakaotalk可以在145亿的设备上安装注册，这将有助于打击韩国领先的门户网站—NAVER网。韩国人并非只将应用程序用来聊天，它同样是一个流行的手机游戏平台，kakao大部分的钱也是由此而来，用来发送数字礼物。韩国NAVER网同样拥有一个消息应用程序—LINE，拥有4亿用户，只是它建立在日本。
The market is highly regionalised: most friendships are local, after all. Kakao has been trying to break out of South Korea, where it is running out of room. It is concentrating on Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, but it faces stiff competition from Line and WeChat. Which app if any will conquer the globe is an open question—though WhatsApp, with most users and Facebook's billions, looks the most powerful. Perhaps none will. People may end up using several—as they did with desktop messaging services in the internet's first wave.
市场是高度区域化的：毕竟大多数的友谊是带有地域性的。kakao一直试图打破韩国这个运营空间。它将目光集中在印度尼西亚，马来西亚和菲律宾，但它面临着LINE和微信的激烈竞争。虽然WhatsApp拥有最多的用户和facebook数十亿美元的资金，看起来似乎是最强大的一个，但该应用程序是否能够占领世界市场还是一个开放性的问题——也许不会。互联网的第一次浪潮可能会以人们使用几个不同的桌面通信服务程序而告终。
