Analysis of News Data on ‘Super App’ Using Topic Modeling

Super apps are applications that allow users to use multiple services in a single app without switching to other apps. As they began to be perceived as a leading future-oriented platform in the industry, global enterprises who are joining this new mobile trend are increasing. In this regard, this study examines the consumers’ experience or issues on the platforms, since its evolution, by focusing on KakaoTalk, the characteristic super app in South Korea. For the purpose of this study, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) analysis was conducted on 4,782 news data that included KakaoTalk in the title, from 2010 to February 26, 2021. Considering the interpretability, nine topics were derived from the LDAvis, and each of the topics was specified as ‘industry’, ‘basic service’, ‘information service’, ‘entertainment’, ‘privacy protection’, ‘payment service’, ‘e-commerce’, ‘extra service’, and ‘police investigation’. Along with the basic chat services, consumers were found to be enjoying other diverse services including games, e-commerce, and online payment. However, consumers’ concerns for personal information were found to be high, in consideration to words, such as phishing/victim, in the topic of ‘privacy protection’. This exploratory study showed how KakaoTalk, the super app, is being discussed in Korean society. The study has identified the key functions of the super apps and provided the meaningful basis for the future direction of the app industry.