[Conference Call] Kakao: "We Expect to Achieve 10% Revenue Growth and a 10% Operating Margin This Year"

"Reach 10 million active users of AI services by year-end"

Kakao said it expects to achieve its targets of growing consolidated revenue by more than 10% and achieving a 10% operating margin this year, driven by growth in its platform business.

Shin Jonghwan, Kakao's chief financial officer (CFO), said during the company's third-quarter earnings conference call on the morning of November 5, "We expect to fully achieve the guidance we set at the beginning of this year: more than 10% growth in consolidated revenue and a 10% operating margin."

Kakao Pangyo Agit in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. Photo by Kang Jinhyung aymsdream@

Shin added, "Kakao's standalone operating profit has posted double-digit growth year over year for three consecutive quarters this year, and we expect this improvement to continue."

Regarding the outlook for each business segment in the fourth quarter, he said, "We expect growth in advertising to remain in the double digits or higher as revenue from business messaging recovers. In commerce, we expect a base effect because Chuseok, a peak season for KakaoTalk Gift, fell in the fourth quarter last year."

However, he expects improvement in the content segment's performance to be delayed. Shin said, "The recovery in the content segment's performance is taking somewhat longer. As we expect a trend similar to the third quarter to continue into the fourth quarter, profitability is likely to improve only to a limited extent."

Kakao also set user targets for its AI services, including Kanana in KakaoTalk, ChatGPT for Kakao, and Kanana Space. Kakao CEO Jeong Shina said, "We can fully achieve our target of 10 million monthly active AI users by the end of this year. We are also laying the groundwork to reach at least 20 million daily active AI users by 2030."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.