Kakao's operating profit plunges 56 pct in 2018

All Headlines 09:05 February 14, 2019

SEOUL, Feb. 14 (Yonhap) -- Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea's top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, said Thursday its operating income plunged 56 percent on-year in 2018 despite record high annual sales.

Operating income reached 72.9 billion won (US$64.8 million) last year on a consolidated basis, down from 165.4 billion won, the company said in a press release.

Sales, however, rose 23 percent on-year to a yearly high of 2.42 trillion won, the company said.

For the fourth quarter of last year, the company's operating income stood at 4.3 billion won with sales at 673.1 billion won, officials said.

Kakao said the revenue from its content platform remained steady at 314.4 billion won during the October-December period, with the figure representing a 18 percent on-year increase.

The advertising sector's sales grew 10 percent on-year to 167.1 billion won over the cited period on the back of revenue growth of its mobile advertising.

The music content sales also expanded by 13 percent on-year to 130 billion won in the fourth quarter due to steady revenues from its streaming service, Melon.

Revenues from other businesses, including online commerce, jumped 48 percent on-year to 177 billion won during the same period.