15,000 units of Kakao’s AI speaker sell out on first day

Kakao said Tuesday its artificial intelligence (AI) speaker sold out on the first day of the official launch.

Kakao, which also operates the country’s No. 2 portal, said all 15,000 Kakao Mini speakers sold out in nine minutes.

The company earlier said the Kakao Mini will come with its AI platform, Kakao I, along with voice recognition and software that can understand natural language.

On Sept. 18, more than 3,000 units of the product were sold within 40 minutes for those who preordered. While the official price of the Kakao Mini is set at 119,000 won ($107), the device was available for 59,000 won for those preordering.

The Kakao Mini is equipped with four high-end microphones to accurately capture users’ speech. As the device can connect to other speakers via Bluetooth, users are able to utilize features of the Kakao Mini through other premium audio systems as well.

Kakao’s portal rival Naver also said 10,000 units of its AI speaker Friends were sold out within 23 hours of the launch on Oct. 17.

YONHAP