Kakao Talk’s latest sticker set received instant backlash from users of the app for featuring the beloved Kakao Friends in compromising positions. The animated sticker set, which only cost $3.19, included depictions of the characters engaged in BDSM, fetishism, roleplay, fellatio, and non-traditional sexual positions and was available to any user of the messaging app. While the stickers were up for only two hours before being taken down, they were downloaded over 6 million times by the platform’s 50 million active accounts. Kakao Corporation has yet to comment on the situation, but the company’s social media accounts were swarmed with complaints and expressions of horror. One commenter stated, “I’ll never be able to unsee the images of Apeach and Ryan the Lion getting hot and heavy. Really, it was too much.” Despite the negative public sentiment, online sales for Kakao Friend merchandise has increased by 300%.
* be swarmed with
If a place is swarming with people or things, there are large numbers of them moving around it
ex) Something must be going on - the streets are swarming with police.
* hot and heavy 몸을 막 엉겨붙은
When two people are engaged in an intense make-out session, but not actually having sex.
* public sentiment 여론