Kim Jae-Ryong, President and CEO of Kakao Japan Co., Ltd.

Overcoming daily challenges to become a company where hard work is rewarded

President and CEO of Kakao Japan Co., Ltd.
Kim Jae-yong

Born in June 1976. From 2006, he worked at NHN Japan, where he worked on services such as Hangame, LINE, and comico. He then joined Kakao Japan in May 2015 to help launch new businesses.
In April 2016, the digital manga and novel service "Piccoma" was released.

Piccoma is an online manga and novel service that is now used by 2 million people a day. President Kim traveled to 40 countries during his student days, and says that traveling taught him the importance of noticing the differences between people and accepting each other. We asked him about the path he has taken so far.

During my university days, I often traveled alone. I went to about 40 countries. People around me were surprised, but it was fun. Traveling made me realize that each person is different. When you go out into the world, cultures and sensibilities are different. It's not that one is right or wrong, but rather that we are different. Traveling made me realize the importance of noticing differences and accepting each other. I also worked part-time often, but I was always thinking about what kind of work would be most efficient.
It's good to worry. If you keep worrying, you will make progress little by little. If you worry or think about something, you will find something. Some people have dreams and some don't, but it's also good not to have dreams. In a sense, not having dreams can be said to open up many possibilities.

The appeal of the breadth of IT and my current job

After graduating from university, I joined a sports-related company because I loved sports. There I studied sports marketing, but when I was in my first year at university, the internet started to become popular, and I was interested in new ways to spread advertising, so I changed jobs to NHN Japan Co., Ltd. (now LINE Corporation). There are no barriers in IT.
If you collect a lot of things that sell for 50 or 100 yen, they'll add up to about 1 billion yen. It's a small amount, but when you collect a lot, it becomes a huge amount. What's more, I found the breadth of the work, which easily transcends borders, to be appealing. Work is always tough (laughs). At times like these, I think of the saying, "When it's tough, it's an uphill climb." When people grow, they're climbing an uphill climb. That's why it's tough. So, I don't mind tough times. If I had to pick one, the toughest time was when I joined this company and started. While I was at NHN, the founder of Kakao (who is also the founder of NHN) asked me if I wanted to join Kakao, but I hesitated. I was afraid of changing my environment and worried about starting something from scratch. However, I was 38 years old at the time, and I also wanted to take on a new challenge by the time I was 40. When I reexamined what was important, I realized that people were important, so I decided to join Kakao. I had colleagues who had worked hard with me, so I decided to give it a try.

Launched the manga app "Piccoma"

I started Piccoma from scratch. At the time, there were many companies publishing manga through apps, and I was worried about how to catch up since I started later than the others. I joined the company in May 2015 and launched the manga app "Piccoma" in April of the following year. When we first started, there were around 80 manga titles. After a year of preparation, about two weeks after the service launched, daily sales were around 200 to 300 yen. From there, sales gradually increased with each new title, and by the third month, daily users had reached around 3,000.
At that time, I publicly declared in front of our employees that "we want to reach 7 users per day by the end of July." The employees' faces at the time showed that it was impossible. However, we eventually achieved 7 users on July 28th. Having experienced the joy of achieving this goal, we have certainly grown as people. And after surpassing 1 users, we surpassed 1 users in just 10 days.
I believe that learning the joy of achieving something through hardships like this has been a great asset for us.

To be a company where people who work hard can benefit

I'm the type of person who grows when I'm praised. Being recognized is the happiest moment for me. That's why I want to create a company where people who work hard benefit. I want to value two things: diligence and sincerity. I also believe that everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and that by combining strong points, we can become even stronger. That's why I think it's more important to develop strengths than to compensate for weaknesses.
The challenge is our own aging. Most of our customers are in their teens and twenties, but the people making the products are in their thirties, and the people approving them are in their forties.
The challenge is whether we are properly providing what users want. What is normal for our customers is different from what is normal for us.
That's why we have to fill that gap. I believe that what will survive in the times is not the "strong" but the "able to adapt to change."

＊message＊

People tend to compare themselves to others, but first of all, love yourself. Everyone has good points, so tell yourself that everything will be okay. People who have confidence in themselves can overcome difficult things. I also want you to worry about things every day. Worrying can lead to something.

From the April 20, 2020 issue of the Student Newspaper (Reon Kitajima, first-year student at Bunkyo University)

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