AI Therapy for Corona-Blues
Kakao COVID-19 Report, Part 10
The Kakao COVID-19 Report uses Kakao’s service data to give us a perspective on how we are trying to maintain our lives and create a new normal during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from January to June 2020, from multiple Kakao community and lifestyle services, including Kakao Talk, news, search, media∙contents, mobility, healthcare, e-commerce, fintech, artificial intelligence and social impact, were analyzed to create the Kakao COVID-19 Report. Our findings on the new normal, as are detailed in the Kakao COVID-19 Report, will hopefully be used as reference when building new strategies and policies for the future.
Part 1 is about how our lives have changed since the outbreak of COVID-19, told with data from Kakao’s many services.
Part 2 provides a more in-depth analysis by focusing on media and content consumption.
Part 3 is an observation of changes in peoples’ lives at home, seen with e-commerce and healthcare service data.
Part 4 is about how people moved around during COVID-19, by looking at data from mobility services.
Part 5 uses data to show how mobility patterns have changed during our daily lives and while we travel during COVID-19.
Part 6 identifies peoples’ various social interests by analyzing search data
Part 7 takes a look at how interested people are in COVID-19 by analyzing data related to the coronavirus.
Part 8 is about how people use AI to communicate in their daily lives.
Part 9 deals with how digital services are used while people try to live a contactless life.
# Strict social distancing, accompanied by corona blues
- Decrease in happiness, life satisfaction and positive sentiments
- Increase in negative sentiments and stress
We studied data from the "South Korean Happiness Index" to analyze the mental and emotional wellbeing of the Korean society during COVID-19.
The South Korean Happiness Index is a service available in Kakao Together’s ‘Hello’ menu, provided in partnership with the Seoul National University Center for Happiness Studies. The index consists of a survey with ten questions about users’ life satisfaction, positive and negative sentiments, stress factors etc… Responses for each question are marked on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being “strongly disagree” and 10 being “strongly agree”.
There was no noticeable change in the happiness index before the social distancing regulations that were put into effect on March 21. The breaking point came at the end of March, when stricter social distancing rules were imposed. The happiness index which stood at 5.3 in early May, dropped to 5.1. Although the difference was not drastic, considering that the happiness index had maintained a stable level of 5.3 before the social distancing regulations, the decrease demonstrates how people started to experience emotional changes due to the enforced policies.
[Figure 1] Happiness index, retrieved from Kakao Together’s ‘Hello’ (Jan. 2020 to May 2020)The life satisfaction index also started to decrease after strict social distancing measures were imposed.
[Figure 2] Life satisfaction, retrieved from Kakao Together’s ‘Hello’ (Jan. 2020 to May 2020)The index that measures the meaning of life also decreased during the same period.
[Figure 3] The meaning of life, retrieved from Kakao Together’s ‘Hello’ (Jan. 2020 to May 2020)Respondent’s positive sentiments decreased when social distancing policies were put into effect.
[Figure 4] Positive sentiments, retrieved from Kakao Together’s “Hello” (Jan. 2020 to May 2020)Meanwhile, negative sentiments increased during the same period.
[Figure 5]Negative sentiments, retrieved from Kakao Together’s ‘Hello’ (Jan. 2020 to May 2020)The stress index demonstrated an increase as the COVID-19 outbreak began and the Orange Alert (third highest out of the four-tier alert system) was initiated in March. The stress index demonstrated a slight decrease when the highest Red Alert was put into effect, but increased again as the pandemic prolonged.
[Figure 6] Stress index, retrieved from Kakao Together’s ‘Hello’ (Jan. 2020 to May 2020)#Different demands for mental healing during COVID-19
- Greater need to overcome anxiety from isolation, rather than emotional healing
Kakao Together offers meditation sounds on the “Mindfulness” menu. A unique keyword belongs to each meditation sound, allowing users to find the sound they want using the keyword. We were able to see which sounds the users listened to for emotional stability by analyzing the major keywords of the sounds played before and after COVID-19.
Data from the first half of 2019 (January to June) show that keywords that were searched on “Mindfulness” were related to the peace of mind, such as “mind-view” (23%) and “self-esteem” (8%), rather than being keywords about specific anxieties.
On the other hand, keywords that were searched during the first half of 2020 were very different from those of the previous year. The most popular keywords in 2020 were “relationship” (9%), “mind immunity” (8%) and ‘anxiety’ (7%), showing that users were looking for meditation sounds that could relieve anxiety that had built up inside them during isolation. Only 5% and 6% of users searched for meditation sounds with the keywords “acceptance” and ”mind-view.”
[Figure 7] Popular keywords in Kakao Together’s “Mindfulness,” 2019 (left) and 2020(right)#Emotional healing with AI
- Demand for therapeutic sounds on Hey Kakao doubled than in early 2020
During COVID-19, meaningful changes have also occurred in the demand made through the AI service Hey Kakao for therapeutic sounds. The number of users who searched for therapeutic sounds via Hey Kakao decreased at the end of January compared to the beginning of the year. Users who searched for therapeutic sounds started to increase as COVID-19 cases rose in February, then shot up to 29% from that of early January in the fourth week of February, when COVID-19 cases erupted due to a super-spreading patient. The number of users increased again in March, to 40% compared to the beginning of the year, then increased exponentially to 145% at the end of April, when strict social distancing measures were extended.
Hey Kakao’s therapeutic audio content were sent as Kakao Talk Plus Friends messages on April 22, to allow more users to experience therapeutic sounds.
[Figure 8] Number of users who consumed healing sounds through Hey Kakao# Consoling each other through digital donations
Many people made donations to help overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. We observed the data from Kakao Together, Kakao’s social contribution service and analyzed the changes in direct donations and supporting donations (donations made through supportive messages and comments) before and after COVID-19. Figure 9 demonstrates that donations from March of 2020 exceeded 2019.
[Reference: Special fundraising events were held on March (Centennial of the Korean Provisional Government) and December (year-end celebration) of 2019]
[Figure 9] Donations given through Kakao Together (Jan. 2019 to Jan. 2020)Data Analysis and Methodology
- The Kakao COVID-19 Report analyzes data retrieved from multiple Kakao community and lifestyle services, including Kakao Talk, news, search, media∙contents, mobility, e-commerce, fintech, artificial intelligence and social impact.
- Methodology: The data are presented in the form of a graph to show proportional data or percentages, (%) in order to illustrate the changes that occurred before and after COVID-19. The data were retrieved from (either the first week or the entire month of) January to June 2020 and for some analyses, to September 2020. Some data were excluded.
- Example: The graph below shows that the number of users increased by 50% on the fourth week of April, compared to the number of users in the first week of January 2020. On the y-axis, values above zero (0) represent an increase in frequency, whereas values below zero (0) represent a decrease in frequency.
Kakao COVID-19 Report
Part 1: COVID-19 and Kakao Data
Part 4: Traffic Jams during COVID-19
Part 5: Tory Stores over Theme Parks
Part 6: More Searches for Pharmacies
Part 7: Knowing the Facts on COVID-19
Part 9: Digital Expressions of Care
Kakao aims for the results of the Kakao COVID-19 Report to serve as a resouce in overcoming times of crisis. We hope that the implications of our data analyses will be used in building wise and resilient strategies or policies to navigate uncertainties and explore new business opportunities.
All copyrights of the Kakao COVID-19 Report are reserved by Kakao Corporation. Kakao Corporation strictly prohibits the use of the Kakao COVID-19 Report for promotional, sales, or marketing purposes. Kakao Corporation authorizes the reproduction and use of the Kakao COVID-19 Report within the scope of the Copyright Act, provided that all copyrights are fully disclosed.
Click below buttons to download PDF version of the Kakao COVID-19 Report.
