[Edaily Reporter Lee So-hyun] #Kakao is launching a development contest to discover artificial intelligence (AI) services that can be utilized on KakaoTalk.

Kakao announced on the 17th that it is hosting the “AGENTIC PLAYER 10” competition to revitalize the AGENTIC AI ecosystem and discover creative AI services.

This competition is a contest to develop various AI services and tools using Kakao’s MCP-based open platform, “PlayMCP.” MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, a technical standard that enables AI models to perform tasks by integrating with external tools or services. Participants can enter the competition by registering their self-developed MCP servers on PlayMCP.

Services that advance to the finals will be made available to KakaoTalk users through “Kakao Tools,” an AI agent service that integrates with various services both within and outside Kakao.

Through this initiative, Kakao plans to provide developers with opportunities for their AI services to reach real users and expand the KakaoTalk-based AI agent ecosystem.

This event is a follow-up to the “MCP Player 10” MCP development contest held last December. Kakao explained that it organized this contest to provide practical and innovative development experiences based on its AI technology and platform.

This year, with the addition of sponsorship from the Ministry of Science and ICT, the scale of the competition and the benefits have been expanded. Anyone interested in developing AI services—including individual developers, startups, and college students—can participate.

Applications are open until July 14. Participants simply need to register the services they have developed on PlayMCP.

The 20 services that pass the preliminary screening will be unveiled via Kakao Tools within KakaoTalk. The finals will take place from August 31 to September 28 through user voting. Following this, the final 10 teams will be selected based on a combination of user votes and expert evaluations. The final 10 teams will be announced at the awards ceremony held at the Kakao AI Campus on October 23.

A total of 27 million won in prize money will be awarded to the winning teams. The Grand Prize winner will receive the Minister of Science and ICT Award and 10 million won. Two Gold Prize winners will each receive 5 million won, and seven Silver Prize winners will each receive 1 million won.

A Kakao representative stated, “Agentic Player 10 is a platform that gives participants the opportunity to showcase their own unique AI services to KakaoTalk users,” adding, “We look forward to the interest and participation of a diverse range of AI players with creative ideas and development capabilities.”