SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean tech giant and company renowned for its pervasive KakaoTalk messaging application, Kakao Corp (035720. KS), has revealed a 22% surge in first-quarter revenue, reaching the company's revenue for the first quarter of 2023 at KRW 1.99 trillion (US$1.45 billion).
This was driven by robust growth in its content and platform businesses.
The operating profit nearly doubled to KRW 120.3 billion (US$87.8 million), representing a 6% margin.
The platform business of Kakao, which encompasses KakaoTalk, demonstrated a 13% growth, reaching KRW 954.8 billion (US$696.3 million).
The Talk Biz unit, responsible for advertising and commerce through the messaging app, recorded an 8 percent increase, reaching KRW 522.1 billion (US$380.9 million).
The portal business, encompassing the Daum search engine, exhibited a modest 1 percent increase, reaching KRW 84.7 billion (US$61.8 million).
Concurrently, the content business expanded by 33 percent, reaching KRW 1.03 trillion (US$751.4 million).
The revenue generated by the music unit exhibited a notable surge of 102 percent, reaching KRW 468.2 billion (US$341.5 million).
However, the story unit experienced a slight 1 percent decline to KRW 227 billion (US$165.6 million), while media revenue increased 41 percent to KRW 95.2 billion (US$69.4 million).
Kakao has announced plans to accelerate the development of AI services by acquiring its AI research and development subsidiary, Kakao Brain, 's large-scale language and image generation models.
The company aims to integrate Kakao Brain's technological expertise with its service capabilities to facilitate deploying AI services and disseminating AI technology in everyday life.
US$1=KRW1370.96
