The company, whose KakaoTalk instant messaging service is on about 93 per cent of smartphones in South Korea, was valued at about US$3 billion in May when a reverse merger with Daum Communications was first mooted in the biggest coming together of Internet companies in the country's history. The combined group's market value is now about 8.4 trillion won. "Such a company comes along about once in a decade," Park said, pointing to the previous success of search-engine operator Naver Corp, which listed in 2002 and now owns Line Corp, Japan's most-popular messaging service. "The Kakao success story became possible because there was a paradigm shift from PC Internet to mobile at the time. The government's promotion does have an effect. It looks similar to that of former President Kim Dae Jung's administration in 1998." Google campus It's not the first time Korea has turned to startups to reinvigorate a flagging economy.