(2nd LD) Kakao Q2 net income up 59.1 pct on solid platform biz

South Korea's social media giant Kakao Corp. said Thursday its second-quarter net income jumped 59.1 percent from a year earlier, led by higher sales of its platform business. Net profit for the April-June period reached 87.1 billion won (US$63.4 million), compared with 54.8 billion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing. Operating income for the period was 134 billion won, up 18.5 percent from a year ago, and sales rose 4.2 percent to 2 trillion won. The company said sales from its mainstay platform business, which includes the dominant mobile messenger KakaoTalk, increased 10 percent on-year to 955.3 billion won. KakaoTalk had 48.9 million monthly active users (MAUs) as of end-June in South Korea, adding 730,000 new users from a year ago. The number of global MAUs reached 54.2 million. In detail, the advertisement and commerce unit posted 513.9 billion won of quarterly revenue, up 7 percent on-year, and the mobility and payment unit saw its sales advance 18 percent to 353.5 billion wo n. But the portal unit, which operates internet platform Daum, saw its sales fall 2 percent to 87.9 billion won on a decreased number of users. Sales from Kakao's content business edged down 0.4 percent on-year to 1.05 trillion won. In detail, sales from the music business unit climbed 6 percent to 510.9 billion won on robust album sales of its artists, including K-pop girl groups Ive and aespa, and boy group Riize. But sales from the story business unit declined 7 percent to 215.7 billion won due to intensifying competition in the Japanese webtoon market. Kakao operates an online webtoon platform, Piccoma, in Japan. In a conference call, Kakao CEO Chung Shin-a said the company will prioritize developing user-friendly artificial intelligence (AI) services as its long-term growth strategy, rather than investing in costly large language models, to increase profitability. She said that the company plans to release its first AI service, which will be an AI communication platform, in the second half of this year. Regarding the recent arrest of Kakao founder Kim Beom-su, Chung said she acknowledges the shareholders' concerns and vowed for responsible operation of all services by Kakao and its affiliates. Kim was arrested last month over his alleged involvement in stock price manipulation related to the firm's takeover of K-pop powerhouse SM Entertainment last year. Chung also said Kakao plans to streamline its businesses to focus more on its messenger platform and AI strategy. Shares in Kakao had fallen more than 1 percent to 37,900 won on the main Seoul bourse as of 10:50 a.m. in line with the broader Korea Composite Stock Price Index's 1.1 percent drop. Source : Yonhap News Agency