In 2024, Kakao Corporation's annual revenue amounted to around 7.87 trillion South Korean won, up from approximately 7.56 trillion won from the previous year. Kakao Corporation is a mobile internet platform provider that merged with one of South Korea’s biggest web portals Daum in October 2014 and became Daum Kakao. The company rebranded as Kakao one year later.
Popular messenger app “KakaoTalk”
WhatsApp is dominating the list of popular mobile messenger apps worldwide. In South Korea, however, Kakao Corporation’s app KakaoTalk is one of the most used messengers with more than 48 million monthly active users. Other messenger apps that are often used in South Korea include Facebook Messenger and Instagram Messenger.
Kakao’s versatile services
Next to messaging services, other services offered by Kakao include Kakao Games, a subsidiary that develops and publishes games on PC, mobile, or VR platforms. The largest share of Kakao’s content revenue was from their music content. Another service offered by Kakao is KakaoPay, a mobile payment service with over 39 million users as of 2022. Mobile payments have been on the rise in South Korea and are expected to grow further and affect various services.