By Bahk Eun-ji
Daum Kakao said Tuesday that it has decided to acquire Loc&All, a startup known for its major hit navigation app Kimgisa, which means "Driver Kim" in Korean.
The app has more than 8 million subscribers, and is one of nation's two biggest mobile navigation services along with SK Telecom's T-Map.
Daum Kakao said it will acquire the app for 62.6 billion won. Final approval will be decided at board meetings before Loc&All becomes an entirely owned subsidiary.
"Daum Kakao decided to make a strategic investment in Loc&All for its massive transportation information and real time big data analysis system, as part of our efforts to expand the online to offline (O2O) business," the company said in a statement.
Daum Kakao offers the Kimgisa service in its taxi hailing app, Kakao Taxi.
Kimgisa is running a trial version of its service in Japan, and said it will be officially launched in other Asian markets including China soon.
"We will keep working on improving the service by continuous investment in research and development, so that Kimgisa can become the No.1 navigation app in Korea," said Loc&All CEO Park Jong-hwan.