Chatbot Service Competitor Market Trends — 2026-09-20

SoftBank expanded its credit line to $6.5 billion to secure AI investment funds as OpenAI's IPO faces delays. Meanwhile, Kakao announced an action-oriented AI agent strategy aiming to surpass ChatGPT within three years and reach 6 trillion won in revenue by 2030 through its "Everyone's AI" initiative. At the same time, Google projected a slowdown in the growth of simple chatbot markets alongside a shift toward emotionally immersive AI services.

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Key Competitor Updates

Kakao: Aiming to Beat ChatGPT with 'Everyone's AI' and Build Action-Oriented Agents Kakao, alongside the LG consortium, predicts that "Everyone's AI" will surpass ChatGPT in three years, with the goal of implementing complete AI agents capable of handling tasks like reservations and payments beyond simple Q&A. Following its spin-off, Kakao set specific targets to make AI a new growth engine, aiming for 6 trillion won in total revenue, 1 trillion won in AI revenue, and 20 million daily active users by 2030. Its core strategy focuses on building KakaoTalk-centric execution AI and preparing an integrated membership program.

Google: Simple Chatbot Growth Slows as 'Emotional and Immersive' AI Market Gains Attention Google analyzed that the growth rate of simple chatbots and AI assistants, which initially led the AI app market, is slowing down. User interest is shifting toward services that offer emotional and immersive experiences beyond simply inputting questions and receiving answers, which Google expects to be the next big market.

OpenAI: Considering Additional Funding Targeting $1.2 Trillion Valuation According to a Financial Times report, OpenAI is considering raising additional funds ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), targeting a valuation of $1.2 trillion (approx. 1,630 trillion won). While discussions are in the early stages, this move is interpreted as an effort to secure an upper hand through capital acquisition amid intensifying global AI model competition.

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Market and Strategy Trends

SoftBank: Securing Liquidity Amid Delayed OpenAI IPO As OpenAI's IPO stalled, SoftBank Group increased its existing credit line by $450 million (approx. 625.05 billion won) to $6.5 billion (approx. 9 trillion 28.5 billion won) to secure AI investment funds. This move is seen as an effort to ease financial burdens between expanding AI investments and delayed returns.

Big Tech: Continued AI Infrastructure Investment Until 2028, Monetization Speed is Key Major U.S. tech companies have the financial capacity to continue large-scale AI infrastructure investments through 2028, but growing time lags between investment and monetization are increasing financial pressures. The market is eyeing "monetization speed" as a core metric to judge the sustainability of AI investments.

Domestic VCs: Active Investment in AI Startups, Merging with Medical and Content Sectors During the third week of September (14–18), startups across various fields, including Corologic and Golden Brain Care, secured investments, with a notable prominence of AI technology merging with the medical sector. Enhance secured a mega-deal worth 51.2 billion won based on AI technology that played against Go grandmaster Lee Sedol.

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Industry Insights and Data Summary

Multipolarization of AI Chatbot Market and Surge in Local Model Market Share Data analyzing global AI chatbot web and mobile traffic shares shows that while ChatGPT and Claude dominate the US and Europe, local models such as DeepSeek, Doubao, and Alice are seeing a surge in market share in countries like China and Russia, leading to a multipolarized market. This suggests that region-specific AI services are strengthening their competitiveness alongside global standard models.

AI Model Competition: Evolution of Voice and Background Agents According to a recent weekly AI model tracking report, a fierce "delivery competition" is unfolding as Voice and Background Agents features evolve. However, cost advantages have not yet been established at the actual task verification stage.

MSIT Expands Support for Adventurous AI Startups The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) confirmed investment support of 80 million won each for 8 companies through the "2026 Adventurous and Challenging AI Startup Investment Target Discovery Contest." This demonstrates ongoing policy support to encourage early-stage innovative chatbot and agent technology development within South Korea's AI ecosystem.