News
LG Uplus says RCS-based service failed to gain traction, differentiate itself from OTT rivals.
South Korea’s mobile operators have closed down Joyn after the service struggled to gain traction against over-the-top (OTT) alternatives.
SK Telecom launched Joyn – the GSMA-backed cross-platform messaging and file-sharing initiative designed to help operators compete with OTT services – in late 2012, swiftly followed by KT Corp and LG Uplus.
SK Telecom reached the 1 million user mark in just 50 days; however, it appears that the early momentum soon fizzled out.
A spokesman for LG Uplus confirmed in an email to Total Telecom on Monday that itself along with SK Telecom and KT Corp decided to stop offering Joyn this month.
He said the decision was taken "due to the low rate of usage" and because it offered "no other special difference" compared to rival services.
Indeed, Joyn has always attracted widespread scepticism because it faces an uphill struggle against well-entrenched opposition.
In Europe and the U.S., it has to compete with the likes of Skype and WhatsApp; the latter recently reached 1 billion monthly active users. In the case of South Korea, the most popular OTT calling and messaging app is KakaoTalk.
With operators doing little to promote Joyn, and with OTT services becoming more reliable as Internet speeds improve, it is probably a case of when, not if the GSMA initiative is consigned to history.
Total Telecom reached out to SK Telecom and KT Corp, but had not heard from them at the time of publishing.
