In the third quarter, Kakao reported a revenue decrease of 4.5% to 1.9214 trillion KRW, while operating profit increased by 5% to 130.5 billion KRW, maintaining an operating profit margin of 6.8%. Despite a decline in content sales, such as games, the company saw a 7% increase in platform sales, totaling 943.5 billion KRW, due to growth in ad and commerce sales within KakaoTalk.
Breaking down the figures, revenue from the Talk Biz segment rose by 6% to 507.3 billion KRW. Revenue from advertising formats within Talk Biz, such as Bizboard and business messages, increased by 4% to 292.2 billion KRW, with business message revenue alone jumping 21% from the previous year. Transaction-type sales, including gift-giving and the Talk Store, grew 8% to 215.1 billion KRW.
Kakao also streamlined its operating costs, reducing them by 5% to 1.7909 trillion KRW. This was a proactive measure in response to economic forecasts and business conditions in the latter half of the year.
On the user side, the average monthly active users (MAU) of KakaoTalk for the third quarter increased to 48.93 million, up by 600,000 compared to the same quarter last year and by 2,000 from the previous quarter. Globally, the figure reaches 54.198 million.
Capital expenditure decreased by 41.6% to 90 billion KRW, representing 5% of sales, largely due to the completion of a data center construction last year and concentrated AI investments in the first half of this year.
Looking ahead, Kakao plans to launch new AI services like “Canana” and integrate AI into various services and features to offer innovative value to users and partners.