Kakao said it posted its highest-ever quarterly revenue and operating profit in the first quarter, with broad growth across its platform and content businesses. Advertising, commerce, mobility and payments led gains in its core platform operations.
On a consolidated basis, Kakao said May 7 that first-quarter revenue rose 11% from a year earlier to 1.9421 trillion won, while operating profit jumped 66% to 211.4 billion won.
Platform revenue increased 16% to 1.1827 trillion won. Within that, Talk Biz revenue rose 9% to 608.6 billion won, and Talk Biz advertising revenue climbed 16% to 338.4 billion won.
Kakao said demand from financial advertisers boosted overall message volume, and a wider range of messaging products expanded how advertisers used the service. Business messaging revenue rose 27% from a year earlier, while display advertising revenue increased 10%.
Combined gross transaction value for Talk Biz commerce, including Gift and Talk Deal, grew 10% to 2.9 trillion won. Kakao attributed the increase to stronger product offerings in high-demand categories such as fresh food and home appliances, along with more personalized user benefits.
After the March “Kakao Shopping Festa,” Talk Store transaction value rose 18% from a year earlier, and self-purchase transaction value within Gift surged 53%. First-quarter commerce revenue increased 1% to 270 billion won.
Other platform revenue, which includes mobility and payments, rose 30% to 506.5 billion won. Kakao said mobility posted double-digit year-over-year revenue growth for a third straight quarter, supported by taxi, parking, last-mile logistics and advertising. Payments revenue topped 300 billion won for the first time, driven by growth across payments, financial and platform services.
Content revenue rose 5% to 759.4 billion won. Music revenue increased 11% to 484.6 billion won, and media revenue climbed 23% to 92.4 billion won. Story revenue totaled 182.4 billion won.
Operating expenses rose 7% to 1.7307 trillion won. Kakao’s operating margin was 11%. A company official said profitability typically is weaker in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, but improved this year as efficiency efforts focused on core businesses were reflected in results.
Kakao said it plans to accelerate a shift this year to an agentic AI platform, citing growing interest as execution-focused AI that connects to real-world actions spreads quickly.
The company previously launched AI services “Kanana in KakaoTalk” and “Kakao Search,” based on conversation context within KakaoTalk. Kakao said it is building a structure that links identifying user needs in chats through to reservations and payments, and aims to onboard and serve 50 million users on its AI services.
Chief Executive Jeong Shin-a said, “In the first quarter, we achieved qualitative growth by strengthening our fundamental competitiveness,” adding, “Building on the structural growth momentum of our existing businesses, we will begin the transition to an agentic AI platform used by 50 million users.”
* This article has been translated by AI.
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