kakaotalk

The term “quasi-investment advisory business” refers to a business engaged providing advice, without heterogeneity, concerning judgments on investment in financial investment instruments or the values of financial investment instruments for a fixed consideration from customers; the use of bidirectional channels to conduct such business is strictly prohibited.

A user shall not violate the Capital Markets Act or other related laws and regulations using KakaoTalk, such as providing quasi-investment advice services, inducing or promoting subscription/use of quasi-investment advice services, or commit any of the following acts which may cause harm to other users:

• Creating or operating a group chat room (so-called “leading room”) that provides advice concerning judgments on investment in financial investment instruments or the values thereof;
• Providing quasi-investment advice service, such as recommending investment items;
• Inducing users to subscribe to a leading room or providing investment advice by impersonating or pretending to be an expert, celebrity, employee of a financial institution or investment company;
• Inducing users to subscribe to a leading room or providing investment advice by mentioning guarantee of principal or profit, compensation, recovery of loss, etc.;
• Promoting or encouraging the use of private home trading systems (e.g., HTS, MTS), or related websites
• Promoting or encouraging sign-up or use of overseas financial trading platforms or broker sites that are not registered as financial investment businesses
• Sharing false or exaggerated investment information, experience, etc.;
• Inviting other users to a leading room;
• Sending spam messages related to a leading room or registering advertising posts, etc.; or
• Operating a group chat room to show or promote a leading room.

The “Admin Only” one-way chat feature may be modified by the host at any time during the operation of the chatroom and, depending on the settings, may function as a two-way channel. Accordingly, even if this feature is enabled, it shall not be regarded as a strictly one-way channel and must not be interpreted as an exception to the restrictions on activities related to similar investment advisory services.

Where a user attempts to provide investment advice or commit investment fraud in relation to any of the following investment instruments using KakaoTalk in order to induce others to make unlawful or wrong investment decision, Kakao may restrict the user from using KakaoTalk by applying the quasi-investment advising policy stated above mutatis mutandis thereto:

• Virtual assets (e.g., cryptocurrency) under the Act on the Protection of Virtual Asset Users;
• New or new type of technology investment instruments (e.g., art tech, NFT) which fall under securities or virtual assets;
• Real estate investment; or
• Other investment instruments similar thereto.

Especially in relation to virtual assets, users shall not commit any of the following acts:

• Promoting or encouraging registration for virtual asset exchanges that have not filed a report as virtual asset service providers in accordance with the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information
• Inducing users to invest in or trade unlisted virtual assets;
• Operating a group chat room (e.g., open chat room) to trade unlisted virtual assets or trading thereof; or
• Inducing users or promoting virtual asset futures not permitted by related laws or regulations.

“Similar deposit-taking” refers to any of the following activities that raise funds from a large number of random people without registering or reporting or getting licensed or authorized.

• An act of receiving investment after promising to pay in the future a full or an amount exceeding the amount of investment
• An act of receiving money under the pretext of deposit, term deposit, installment, balance, etc. after promising to pay the full amount of principal or an amount higher than such amount in the future
• An act of issuing or selling private loans after promising to repurchase at a price higher than the issuing or selling price in the future
• An act of collecting money for the membership fee after promising to compensate a future economic loss with money or securities

To prevent user harm caused by unauthorized or deceptive fundraising activities, if Kakao confirms, through user reports or other methods, the presence of the following types of information in any service area, including KakaoTalk messages, the responsible user may be immediately restricted from all of KakaoTalk services. In addition, if the following information is identified in service areas accessible to all KakaoTalk users, Kakao may take a series of applicable measures, such as limiting visibility in search results, restricting content exposure, and restricting access to chatrooms, to prevent user harm.

• Any content that guarantees the investment principle
• Any content guaranteeing the recovery of the investment funds
• Any content guaranteeing high returns from investments
• Any content promising regular high yields from investments
• Any content guaranteeing zero-risk
• Content that encourages or promotes sign-up or use of account rental services
• Content that encourages or promotes sign-up or use of overseas investment or wealth management services (including apps)

If you are restricted from using the service due to similar deposit-taking, you can request to release restrictions by proving whether you have been licensed, authorized, registered, or reported under relevant laws and regulations.