SEOUL, February 12 (AJP) - South Korea’s Kakao Corp. said Thursday its annual revenue exceeded 8 trillion won for the first time last year, with operating profit surging on stronger platform performance and improved cost efficiency.
In a regulatory filing, the company said consolidated revenue for 2025 rose 3 percent from a year earlier to a record 8.1 trillion won, while operating profit jumped 48 percent to an all-time high of 732 billion won.
Fourth-quarter revenue increased 9 percent year-on-year to 2.13 trillion won, marking the highest quarterly sales in the company’s history. Operating profit more than doubled, rising 136 percent to 203.4 billion won, exceeding 200 billion won for a second consecutive quarter.
Platform revenue in the October–December period climbed 17 percent from a year earlier to 1.22 trillion won.
Within the segment, Talk Biz revenue grew 13 percent to 627.1 billion won, driven by a 16 percent increase in advertising sales to 373.4 billion won and a 19 percent rise in business messaging revenue. Display advertising revenue advanced 18 percent.
Other platform revenue, including mobility and payment services, jumped 30 percent to 523.9 billion won. Kakao said its mobility unit recorded double-digit growth as taxi operations remained stable while parking and quick-delivery services expanded. Kakao Pay also posted balanced growth across payments, financial and platform services.
Content revenue totaled 910.6 billion won in the fourth quarter, largely unchanged from a year earlier. Music and media revenue rose 12 percent and 30 percent to 525.1 billion won and 95.8 billion won, respectively, while story content revenue slipped 5 percent to 191.8 billion won.
This year, Kakao said it will focus on artificial intelligence and KakaoTalk to drive growth. In the first quarter, the company plans to launch its on-device AI service, “Kanana in KakaoTalk,” on both Android and iOS, while continuing development of its in-house large language model.
Chief Executive Jeong Shin-a said restructuring efforts to concentrate resources on core businesses were reflected in the company’s performance.
“We will demonstrate progress through improved earnings and deliver tangible results that support Kakao’s mid- to long-term growth outlook,” Jeong said.
* This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP.
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