Kakao Games' Q1 net soars 67.5 pct on brisk sales

SEOUL, May 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korean gaming company Kakao Games Corp. said Tuesday its first-quarter net income jumped more than 67 percent from a year earlier on strong sales.

Consolidated net profit came to 18.3 billion won (US$16.3 million) in the January-March period, up 67.5 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Sales spiked 35 percent on-year to 130.1 billion won, with its operating income swelling 22.9 percent to 15.6 billion won.

The game affiliate of Kakao Corp., which operates the country's most-used mobile messenger KakaoTalk, said its PC game sales surged 19 percent on-year as its new massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Elyon stabilized.

Online game sales also spiked 41 percent from a year earlier on the back of brisk demand for live games, it added.

Kakao Corp. owns the largest 58.96 percent stake in Kakao Games, which has been broadening its presence not only in South Korea but across Asia with the help of KakaoTalk after its inception in April 2016.

Kakao Games currently has over 45 million monthly active users. In September last year, Kakao Games made a splash debut on the country's tech-laden KOSDAQ market.

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