South Korean platform giant Kakao Corp. will launch a diabetes care service that helps users manage blood sugar levels on their smartphones in the third quarter.

The company plans to develop the service into a mobile healthcare platform that allows all users, not just patients, to manage health through artificial intelligence and other key information and communications technology (ICT). It will also seek service integration with its messenger service KakaoTalk.

The plans were announced by Hwang Hee, chief executive officer of Kakao Healthcare, in a press meeting on Thursday in Pangyo, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.

Kakao Healthcare was launched as a medical care subsidiary of Kakao in March last year with a mission of “making people healthy with technology.”

Kakao is also engaged in talks for collaboration with major hospitals in Korea to develop a service that allows users to book a hospital appointment via KakaoTalk.

By Ko Min-suh and Choi Jieun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]