Kakao Expands Digital Education for Seniors in Their 60s and 70s, Puts Smartphone and AI Use in a Book

Kakao is expanding its digital education program for seniors in their 60s and 70s. The company is broadening the digital training it has been conducting in person into self-study content in book form.

The purpose of the program is to help seniors in their 60s and 70s use smartphones. The curriculum covers everyday smartphone functions such as KakaoTalk and mobile payments, as well as AI use and security settings.

The Kakao Impact Foundation announced on the 1st that it will publish a smartphone lifestyle guidebook, "Yellow Book (Yellow Book)." "Yellow Book" is aimed at seniors in their 60s and 70s and contains 100 smartphone tips.

The guidebook includes items such as adjusting the font size in KakaoTalk, hailing a taxi through Kakao T, sending mobile coupons as gifts, transferring money through Kakao Pay, and using KakaoMap. It also covers how to plan trips with AI and how to set smartphone security features, enabling readers to learn on their own from basic smartphone functions to AI use and security.

The book is designed as a 100-day course with 5 minutes a day and 1 function at a time, allowing seniors to learn features in short sessions and continue studying on their own. The explanations use actual smartphone screens, and a "challenge sheet" for recording feature-learning progress is also included.

The book was produced based on the field experience of the Kakao Impact Foundation's "Senior Digital School on the Road," which has been operated since 2024. By reflecting frequently asked questions and training content from the in-person classes, it was designed so users can independently explore and learn the functions they need without visiting a training center.

Last year, Kakao expanded the number of institutions participating in the "Senior Digital School on the Road" to 150 nationwide and promoted the distribution of 100,000 customized teaching materials. This year, it turned the accumulated in-person training content into Yellow Book, widening access to education in a format that allows individual self-study.

One reason for this expanded scope of education is the digital divide in generative AI use among older adults. According to a report released in April by the Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI), which analyzed Korea Media Panel data for 2024 and 2025, awareness and usage of generative AI have increased significantly overall, but awareness and usage among older adults remain relatively low.

Yellow Book will be sold on Kakao Makers until the 14th, after which distribution will expand to major offline and online bookstores from the 22nd. Proceeds from Yellow Book sales will be donated to senior digital education programs.

Along with the publication, Kakao is running a donation campaign on Kakao Together With. Sales proceeds and funds raised through Kakao Together With, including Kakao's KRW 20 million donation, will be delivered to the Korea Association of Senior Welfare Centers, and the donation will be used to train 100 members of the "Senior Citizen Digital Volunteer Group" and support digital education for 1,000 local seniors. The "Senior Citizen Digital Volunteer Group" will support other seniors in their digital learning.

Ryu Seok-young, chair of the Kakao Impact Foundation, said Yellow Book was designed so that users can look up what they need at the moment and try it out for themselves. He added that he expects it to help people learn and use the functions needed in daily life independently.

Source: IT DAILY · Kim Byeong-ju
Original: https://www.itdaily.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=241332

References

• https://www.itdaily.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=241332