[THE INVESTOR] Korean Internet giant Kakao will launch a new hair salon booking service called Kakao Hairshop on July 12 amid its relentless expansion into online-to-offline business.

The company said that it has completed the final testing of the release candidate over the past few months.

The initial number of hair salons covered across the nation will be around 2,000 and many more are being examined for inclusion.



Kakao Hairshop will provide detailed information on hair salons including the career of hair designers and prices in a more transparent manner. Hair treatments such as haircut, perming and coloring will be specifically categorized by types such as balloon, digital perm, digital perm, magic setting, Shiseido coloring and mucota hair treatment. Pictures of expected results after the hair treatment and the cost of extra charges -- additional fee based on hair length -- is also included in the app.

After selecting a store and services, app users can make a prepaid reservation. Payment methods include Kakao Pay, credit card and mobile payment. In order to decrease the possibility of “no-show,” 100 percent prepayment system has been introduced. This security system has reduced the average rate of no-show from 20 percent to below 0.5 percent during the trial period.

By Yun Jeong-hyeon (clareyun@heraldcorp.com)