Naver, the owner of popular messaging app 'Line' has acquired Taipei-based Gogolook, known for its flagship caller ID app 'Whoscall', to build a global footprint in competition with other messaging apps.
Yahoo and Apple acquisitions have often made headlines this year but in a latest announcement, Gogolook, the company behind the caller ID app 'Whoscall', has confirmed its acquisition by Naver, the owner of popular messaging app 'Line'. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed but according to the Investment Commission of Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs, the acquisition was valued at NT$ 529 million (about $17.6 million USD).
"After joining the Naver group, Gogolook will be able to accelerate and extend our strategic business deployment in a global scope," Gogolook CEO Jeff Kuo told TechCrunch in an email. "With the affiliation of LINE and abundant resources from the parent company worldwide, we cannot wait to show the world the strong innovative capabilities of Taiwan app startups."
Naver, the popular search portal in South Korea, has not made any public announcement about the deal and its future plans with the company.
Experts speculate that Gogolook's Whoscall app service will help Naver push its Line app in direct competition with other instant messaging apps like WhatsApp and WeChat.
Gogolook's famous smartphone app, whoscall is widely used outside the United States, mainly in Taiwan, Korea and Japan. The app creates its own database to identify unknown callers through public sources like Yellow Pages, search engines like Google Place API and crowdsourced records. The app has garnered 4.5 million downloads worldwide with about 1.2 million monthly active users with more than 600 million numbers in its database.
On the other hand, Naver has grown immensely with its Line messaging app. The Japan-based app hosts over 300 million registered users worldwide. With the acquisition of Gogolook, Naver can attract Whoscall users to its messaging app, which will push its ranking in the competitive messaging race.
