Play a Game on KakaoTalk and Toss Apps: "Boosting User Engagement and Advertising Revenue"

Increase in In-App Games Without Downloads
Fun and Rewards Combined: Less Resistance to Watching Ads
Collecting Behavioral Data for Personalized Marketing

Mini-games that can be enjoyed with a simple click within a platform, without the need for separate downloads, are spreading across applications (apps) such as messengers, financial services, and shopping. This trend is driven by the ability to increase user retention time, boost revenue through ad exposure, and collect meaningful behavioral data.

According to the IT industry on July 9, Kakao introduced a new "Game Chip" tab to the KakaoTalk app last month, and this month launched a ranking mission. Users who rank among the top three among their KakaoTalk friends by playing games receive verification badges and rewards. Currently, Game Chip offers six games featuring Kakao Friends characters (IP), including "Friends Bonbon," and 19 casual games such as "Find the Differences" and "Whack-a-Mole." The company plans to expand this to more than 50 titles by the end of the year.

Rather than encouraging payments within Game Chip, Kakao has adopted an ad-watching mission that leverages users' desire to keep playing. When players run out of "hearts" (energy) while playing, they can watch a short advertisement to receive more hearts. Although one heart is automatically recharged every 15 minutes, users often opt to watch a 15–30 second free advertisement to recharge instantly instead of waiting. An industry insider commented, "Users who previously only used the messenger function and then left the app now stay a few minutes longer to play games, and they voluntarily watch ads, resulting in less resistance." The insider added, "This translates into digital advertising revenue for the platform."

Toss, which has established a leading position in the in-app game market, now offers more than 800 mini-games. After launching "App in Toss," an HTML5-based mini-app and game platform that runs instantly within the Toss app in October last year, the number of apps on the platform surpassed 2,000 in just six months and has since grown to 4,000. Of these, game apps account for 20%. The platform includes not only casual games from major Korean game companies such as Wemade Play's "Anipang 2" and NHN's "Hangame Single Matgo," but also reward-based app-tech games like "Raising a Cat."

Mini-Games' Share: 45.1% in 2021 → 55.6% in 2026

The expansion of in-app content by Toss reflects the reality of the financial industry, where market saturation has intensified competition for users. Like KakaoTalk, Toss aims to increase user retention time to drive commerce revenue with app-tech games like "Raising a Cat," and to maximize ad exposure with casual games such as "Anipang 2." In particular, "Raising a Cat" is a killer content for Toss, with more than 5 million cumulative users. In this game, users grow a cat and receive rewards (such as gifticons). To obtain feed or toys for the cat, users must complete missions such as "Pay with Toss Pay."

Naver is also promoting mini-games on platforms such as Chzzzyk and Naver Pay. Chzzzyk is currently running reward events in conjunction with the top-tier "FC Online" e-sports league, allowing users to participate in mini-games (such as the "Curved Kick Challenge") via pop-ups on the broadcast viewing screen. Naver Pay operates a lottery-style event game called "Lucky Ball." Users can tap the Lucky Ball, earned through Naver Pay payments, daily check-ins, or completing missions, to find out if they have won. The chance to win up to 1 million won in points stimulates users' desire to participate.

Industry experts expect in-app games to be actively used for hyper-personalized marketing. A game company official said, "Through in-app games, we can collect detailed behavioral data such as users' ad-watching habits and game preferences. By analyzing these behavioral patterns, we can gain insights into individuals' consumption and personality tendencies." According to Sensor Tower, the proportion of in-app and instant mini-games with built-in ad models among all mobile games has risen from 45.1% in 2021 to 55.6% as of 2026.

A leading example of success is global big tech company Meta. Meta has placed a large number of mini-games within its apps, such as Facebook, that do not require downloads, and collects both reward-based ad view data and in-game control pattern data from users. Using this data, Meta has enhanced its AI targeting algorithms, increasing its dominance in the digital advertising market. Recently, Meta also launched a new social platform called "Pocket," which allows users to create, share, and consume mini-games without coding. Meta announced plans to use the interactive data from users who play and modify in-app games to improve its Meta AI system.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.