What benefits couldn't ‘Joyn’ enjoy? The changing role of standards in the competition in mobile instant messengers in Korea

This case study examines the dynamics of the mobile instant messenger (MIM) market in Korea. MIMs have been disrupting traditional mobile communication services such as voice, SMS, and media content. In response to MIMs, Korean Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) jointly launched a standards-based messenger service called Joyn, which ultimately performed poorly. Focusing on Joyn, this study analyses the changing status of MNOs and their counter-strategies against MIMs in the context of the turbulent mobile services market. For the analysis, we use a co-evolutionary framework encompassing technological, market, and regulatory domains and apply a platform competition perspective. The case of the failure of Joyn has implications for MNOs and their business models/ecosystems not only in Korea but also in other parts of the world.