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SEOUL, May 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korean internet tech giant Kakao Corp. said Thursday its net profit rose from a year earlier, driven by growth from its flagship platform business.
The Korean tech giant posted 226.8 billion won (US$156.8 million) of net profit in the first quarter, up a solid 13.2 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Operating profit jumped 66 percent on-year to 211.4 billion won in the January-March period. Sales were also up 11 percent from the previous year to 1.94 trillion won.
Kakao said its operating profit and sales figure were the highest for any first quarter.
The company's flagship platform division, which includes its ride-hailing service and the Kakao Pay mobile payment service, generated 1.2 trillion won in sales, up 16 percent from a year earlier.
Sales from its content business posted a slight 5 percent increase to 759.4 billion won.
"It is encouraging that the company made quantitative growth in the first quarter by strengthening our core competitiveness," Kakao's CEO Chung Shin-a was quoted as saying in a release.
She added that the company plans to build on the momentum and begin its transformation into an "agentic artificial intelligence platform."
Kakao Corp.'s CEO Chung Shin-a gives a presentation at a conference held in Gyeonggi Province, south of Seoul, in this file photo taken Sept. 23, 2025, and provided by the company. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
fairydust@yna.co.kr
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