Some people may assume that kickboxing and karate are the same, but these are two different things. Kickboxing may integrate some moves from karate but would also use other movements from different types of martial arts. One of the main differences between the two is the use of gloves for kickboxing while in karate, there is no need to use gloves.
Some people may want to learn how to do specific martial arts, but they are not sure if it would be worth it. What they do is they research first about the different available ones then they will choose the one that will work best for the things that they want to achieve.