Kakao Corp. is close to signing Morgan Stanley and Samsung Securities Co. as advisers for an initial public offering that could value South Korea's dominant text messaging firm at more than $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. One person said Kakao could raise as much as $1 billion, which would be the country's largest IPO since May 2010, when Samsung Life Insurance raised 4.9 trillion Korean won ($4.6 billion). The seven-year-old company is betting on strong interest in the hot mobile messaging market, where bankers see a lot of potential for deals. Last week, Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten Inc. agreed to buy Cyprus-based Viber Media Inc. for $900 million. Facebook Inc. last year offered to buy Snapchat, a fast-growing messaging service from Silicon Valley, for about $3 billion. Snapchat declined the offer. Kakao, whose outside investors include Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. and an affiliate of Malaysian conglomerate Berjaya Corp. Bhd, recently set a target of going public by May next year.

Kakao will list on one of Korea's stock exchanges, with the possibility of a separate listing on a stock exchange in another country, according to the people. The listing plans come amid heightened competition in Asia, home to some of the fastest-growing mobile messaging services in the world. Japan's Line, another popular messaging app, has more than 350 million registered users world-wide, according to its operator Line Corp., a Tokyo-based unit of South Korean Internet firm Naver Corp. In October, Line said that it was considering several fundraising options including an IPO. The company said this week that it still hasn't made any concrete IPO plans. Kakao, based in Pangyo, South Korea, is planning its initial public offering to fuel expansion in southeast Asia, and to fund its push into new business lines in its native South Korea, where it has a stranglehold on the personal messaging industry. Introducing WSJD, the Journal's new home for tech news, analysis and product reviews.

Facebook Makes $19 Billion Bet on Mobile What's Keeping Tech Managers Awake at Night: the Cloud and Devices From Home Google to Push Its Fiber Rollout on Comcast's Turf How to Try Bitcoin Without Losing Your Shirt The company said that it currently has 133 million registered users. Kakao has so far struggled to grow beyond Korea's home market, which has a population of about 50 million people, thanks to deeply entrenched competitors in neighboring China and Japan. So it has made a play for Southeast Asian markets that are still up for grabs, including Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. There, it is fighting for market share against Line and Tencent's WeChat service. Back home, Kakao's foray into mobile gaming, which began two years ago, helped the company turn its first annual profit, in 2012. In the process, Kakao has also become the country's primary platform for mobile game developers. Kakao shares gaming revenue with third-party developers, including SundayToz Corp., the developer of color-matching game Anipang for Kakao, which listed its shares late last year on the Korea Exchange's tech-focused Kosdaq Market.

The popularity of Anipang for Kakao, which users play through Kakao's messaging platform, helped Kakao notch up about $6.5 million in profits, on $42 million of sales, in 2012, through in-service purchases of virtual goods. Patio Dining Table With Umbrella HoleThe privately held company hasn't released any financial data for 2013. Free Kittens For Sale Western MaKakao's other attempts to expand its business beyond messaging, including an Instagram-like photo-sharing service and an attempt to sell news and media to mobile users, haven't yet become major revenue sources. Air Purifier Good IdeaThe investment by MOL Global Pte, which is majority owned by Malaysian conglomerate Berjaya came earlier this year through private purchases of Kakao employees' shares, and valued the Korean messaging company at about $2.5 billion.

A spokeswoman for MOL Global, which owns social-networking pioneer Friendster Inc., declined to comment on the equity investment, but noted that Kakao had joined with with Friendster, which since 2011 has operated as a social gaming site. By comparison, Viber Media, which isn't yet making money, sold for $900 million in its deal earlier this month with Rakuten. We spent 3 days at Kakao. Some of us did parasailing with their people and others rode on Super Mable. We Had delicious lunches and fabulous drinks from the bartender in front of Kakao We loved sitting on the beach and then walking back to one of the huts for lunch . We bought quite a few items from the... We stayed at a nearby hotel and walked over. Beach staff was great, place was neat and friendly. Prompt service and lunch was great. This food was amazing! This food was the first best meal I had. We left our resort of Grand Case Beach Club and decided to visit Orient Beach and this restaurant.

I ordered French vivaneau (chicken-sorry if its spelled wrong) So amazing after a swim in the harsh waves of Orient Beach. After we were done with eating, the waiter... Really kind staff, we've been here a few times for drinks and especially to lay on their beds on the beach. You can order anything from the bar and it will be brought to you. This is common to the other bars on Orient Beach, but for some reason we really like Kakao with its blue beach beds. Of the beach restaurants/bars directly on the Orient beach this is one of the best. They seem more concerned with quality ingredients, presentation and preparation than the others on Orient beach. I doubt you would get a bad meal here. The ambiance is also very pleasant. We ate lunch here one day while at the beach. I had a tuna sandwich on a baguette and my husband had a panini. Both came with either a salad or fries and we both ended up taking 1/2 of our meal back to the room to eat the next day. Very good and so were the drinks.