Seoul: South Korean internet tech giant Kakao Corp. announced a significant reduction in its net loss for the fourth quarter, attributing the improvement to record-breaking revenue driven by robust performance in its platform business.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Kakao’s net loss for the October-December period was narrowed to 39.3 billion won (US$27.1 million), a substantial improvement from the 395.2 billion won net loss recorded a year earlier. The company reported a 169.7 percent surge in operating profit, reaching 203.4 billion won, while revenue increased by 9 percent to a record 2.13 trillion won.
The impressive quarterly results were largely due to a 17 percent increase in sales from Kakao’s platform business. The flagship division generated 1.2 trillion won in sales during the three-month period, bolstered by heightened advertising sales on its mobile messenger, KakaoTalk. Meanwhile, sales from the content unit were relatively stable at 910.6 billion won.
For the full year of 2025, Kakao reported a net profit of 525.7 billion won, recovering from a net loss of 161.9 billion won the previous year. The operating profit for the year surged by 59.1 percent to 732 billion won, with annual sales rising 2.9 percent to 8.09 trillion won.
During an earnings call, CEO Chung Shin-a revealed that Kakao has entered into a strategic partnership with Google to enhance its on-device artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Chung emphasized the collaboration’s potential to advance AI services, leveraging Kakao’s data assets and its extensive user base of over 45 million KakaoTalk users in South Korea.
In a separate announcement, Kakao detailed its focus on developing interfaces for next-generation devices, such as Android-powered smart glasses, which will feature hands-free operation and verbal communication. The partnership with Google will also aim to optimize Kakao’s on-device AI services for Android mobile devices.
Last year, Kakao expanded its AI initiatives by partnering with OpenAI, launching a service that enabled all KakaoTalk users to access ChatGPT on the mobile chat app.