Brunch
1 known investors
Brunch is a South Korean online writing and publishing platform where authors publish essays and other written works for readers to discover and read. It features recommended writers, serialized content by day of the week, and "Brunch Book" collections.
Also known as Brunch by Kakao · 브런치
Investors · 1
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Brunch (브런치) is a Korean-language online writing and publishing service positioned around the idea of a space "where writing becomes a work of art." Readers browse essays and other written works through a homepage organized into sections including keywords, serialized pieces by day of the week, recommended Brunch writers, and recommended posts. Writers are profiled by discipline and topic, with categories such as economics, literature, and management, and individual author pages carry short biographies and topic tags (for example economics, investing, marketing, travel, self-development and IT).
The service is distributed as a mobile application published by Kakao Corp. on Google Play, where it is listed in the Social category with more than one million downloads and in-app purchases. The app organizes the experience into Home, Discovery (search and taste-based recommendations, with editor-picked and category-based posts for logged-out users), Live Reading and Reading Notes for tracking reading time and saving sentences, Subscriptions to follow authors and works, and "My Drawer" for recently viewed and liked items plus writing activity and statistics. For authors, Brunch provides an editor and statistics tools covering cover customization, text styling, image grouping, 26 photo filters with cropping and rotation, dividers, photo and video embedding, KakaoTalk sticker attachment, cross-publishing between PC and mobile, per-post statistics, and real-time notifications for comments, mentions, quotations and subscriptions. Longer-form works are packaged as "Brunch Book" collections; the company has introduced a home area surfacing popular Brunch Books by field and has announced a revision of the Brunch Book category system.
Business model
Brunch operates a two-sided content platform: authors publish written works using the platform's editor and analytics tools, and readers discover, subscribe to and read those works on the web and through the mobile app. The Google Play listing indicates the app is free to install and offers in-app purchases.
Traction
The Google Play listing records more than 1 million downloads for the Brunch app and notes a 2017 Google Play Social Award. The web homepage features a rotating set of recommended writers across economic, literary and management categories.
Latest developments
Brunch has announced a revamp of the Brunch Book field/category system and opened a section on the app home that introduces popular Brunch Books by field, allowing readers to see which works are drawing attention within each category. The Android app listing shows an update dated 2026-08-27.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography
Market position
Brunch is operated by Kakao Corp. and sits alongside Kakao's other consumer services such as KakaoTalk and KakaoMap. The app has surpassed one million downloads on Google Play and received the 2017 Google Play Social Award.
Technology
Brunch runs a web service and an Android mobile application. The authoring toolset includes an editor with cover and text styling, group image arrangement, 26 photo filters with cropping and rotation, dividers, video embedding and KakaoTalk sticker support, along with per-post statistics and real-time notifications. Reader-side features include taste-based recommendation, search across posts, works and authors, and reading-time tracking through Live Reading with Reading Notes. The web service states it is optimized for recent browsers (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari).
Go-to-market
Brunch reaches readers through its website and an Android app distributed on Google Play, and recruits and retains authors through editorial curation such as recommended-writer placements, day-of-the-week serialization slots and category rankings of popular Brunch Books. Support is handled through a published phone line and the help@brunch.co.kr address, and the team maintains its own Brunch account for official announcements.
Korean-language writers — including published authors, novelists, poets, essayists, consultants, planners and marketers — who want to publish and build a subscriber base, and readers looking for essays and serialized works across topics such as economics, literature, management, IT and lifestyle.
Geography
The service is published in Korean and aimed at a South Korean audience; its operator, Kakao Corp., is listed at an address in Jeju City, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, South Korea.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 3
launches, deals, and filingsBrunch introduced a section on the app home page presenting popular Brunch Books by field, letting readers browse trending works within each category; the corresponding app update is dated 2026-08-27.
A notice on the Brunch homepage states that the Brunch Book field/category structure is being renewed.
The Brunch app is listed as a winner of the 2017 Google Play Social Award.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Brunchbrunch.co.kr · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Brunch do?
- Brunch is a Korean-language writing and publishing platform, operated by Kakao Corp., where authors publish works for readers.
- Who are Brunch's investors?
- Brunch's investors include Kakao Ventures.