Kakao to buy online novel app Radish for US$440m
AFP, SEOUL
Online fiction app Radish is being bought for US$440 million by South Korean Internet conglomerate Kakao Corp, the two firms said yesterday, making a multi-millionaire of its 30-year-old founder only five years after he set it up.
The deal is one of two acquisitions that Kakao announced yesterday totaling nearly US$1 billion, as it seeks to expand in English-language markets.
Pay-to-read platform Radish presents serialized storytelling in bite-sized installments optimized for smartphones, with readers paying about US$0.20 to US$0.30 to access the next episode immediately, or wait for an hour to read it for free.