Kakao revealed on the 9th that its consolidated sales for the first quarter of this year based on the connectivity standard recorded 1.9884 trillion won, an increase of 22% compared to the same period last year. Operating profit amounted to 120.3 billion won, up 92% year-on-year. Under each business segment, the platform division posted sales of 954.8 billion won, a 13% increase year-on-year. Within the platform division, T-commerce business through KakaoTalk, T-O-O-K Biz, recorded sales of 522.1 billion won, up 8% year-on-year. Meanwhile, the portal business such as Daum, which secures competitiveness through diversified contents, posted sales of 84.7 billion won, up 1% from the same period last year. The platform’s other sales, including mobility and payment, reached 348 billion won, up 5% from the previous quarter and 24% from the same period last year, driven by the steady growth of Kakao Mobility’s taxi, driver, parking, and the increase in overseas and offline payments of Kakao Pay.
Another mainstay of Kakao’s business, the content segment, saw sales rise by 33% year-on-year to 1.336 trillion won. Music sales within the content division reached 468.2 billion won, growing by 102% year-on-year. The company’s venture into the global market, such as Story, saw sales growth of 6% from the previous quarter and a 1% decrease from the same period last year, recording 227 billion won. Media sales decreased by 4% from the previous quarter but increased by 41% from the same period last year, reaching 95.2 billion won.
Operating expenses for the first quarter reached 1.8681 trillion won, up 2% from the previous quarter and 20% from the same period last year.
In order to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence (AI) services, Kakao decided on the 2nd to acquire the AI-based language model and image generation model of its AI research and development subsidiary, Kakao Brain. By combining Kakao Brain’s technological capabilities, including the giant AI language model ‘Ko-GPT’ and the text-based image generation model ‘Karlo,’ along with Kakao’s service strengths, the goal is to swiftly launch AI services. Kakao plans to promote the mainstreaming and popularization of AI technology through this effort.
