Who are the Kakao Friends?

Is it just me or are emoji and animated sticker characters taking over the world? The Kakao Friends were once unassuming characters that lived in the Kakao Talk mobile messaging app. They were content simply to be seen in texts.

Now they have burst out of the digital world and are taking over the real world – or at least the shops in Seoul.

Kakao Friends shops sell everything from hand cream to cuddly toys. There’s jewellery, Christmas cards, kids clothes, hairbands, keyrings, smartphone cases, even thermos flasks with your favourite character. The shops are packed with customers too. Here’s some hand cream:

Not happy with just their own shop, the Kakao friends are collaborating with LOTS of other companies in Korea, so these days I can see the kakao characters in Korean cosmetics shops like the Face Shop, in fashion stores like Beanpole, and even in the local supermarket where I saw them on car air fresheners!

And they are all over the bookshops – how about a Kakao Friends colouring book, or origami-like kit to make 3D paper characters, or something from the digital department – earphones or a USB cable perhaps or a phone case?

I must admit that I’ve been using the Kakao Friends characters for years – ever since I started using KakaoTalk. But until the other day when I started writing this post, I still didn’t know all the characters’ names and personality descriptions.

I was just picking emojis willy-nilly to express myself.

That’s the kind of reckless gal I am. So I had to go to the kakao homepage (Korean) to check who is who!

 

pic: kakao friends

In this line-up of the usual suspects, the characters are

(1) Frodo the wealthy urban dog who is dating
(2) Neo the sexy urban cat.
(3.4) Muzi and Con are always together – the yellow radish with a penchant for bunny rabbit outfits is always with his creator the little green scientist called Con.
(5) Apeach is a cheeky peach – you have to see him from behind, have a look at the pic below. Yes, he’s the one with a head like a  bum (!)
(6) Ryan, the dependable lion is the newest Kakao friends character, then there’s
(7) Tube, the hot-tempered duck, and finally
(8) Jay-G, the cool, hip-hop loving free-spirit. Here’s some more detailed information about the kakao characters in English.

Frodo and Neo are dating and so they have lots of emojis for ‘relationship issues’ like arguing- Me and Mr Kim use these a lot! There are LOADS more animated stickers you can buy on Kakao Pay. But I only use the free Kakao Friends characters because I’m stingy!