Kakao Corp

KRX:035720

Q3-2025 Earnings Call

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Good morning and good evening. Thank you all for joining today. We will now begin Kakao's Q3 2025 Earnings Conference Call. This conference will start with the presentation followed by a divisional Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions]

I will now turn it over to Kakao.

[Jeffrey Shin, executive]

[Interpreted] Hello. I'm Jeffrey from Kakao IR. Let's begin with the third quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Today, I am joined by Shina Chung, the CEO; and Jayden Shin, the CFO. Please be reminded that the earnings results are consolidated estimates under the K-IFRS basis and are subject to change upon the auditor's review. Also, forward-looking estimates are based on assumptions, so actual results may differ from figures included in today's presentation. Now we will have a presentation from CEO, Shina Chung.

[Shina Chung, executive]

[Interpreted] Good morning. This is Shina, CEO of Kakao. Before going into the details of our third quarter results, let me first briefly touch on the Kakao Talk revamp that took place in September. As this was the largest revamp since Kakao Talk's launched 15 years ago, users have shared a wide range of feedback. Kakao is carefully listening to those voices and will continue to make ongoing improvements, including the Friends tab rebound scheduled for the fourth quarter. At the same time, since Kakao's routes, lives and messaging, we will also actively enhance the core messaging experience by gradually introducing many of the customized convenience features that users have long requested.

First, we plan to further strengthen the custom folder feature, which allows users to organize numerous chat rooms within the chat tab according to purpose and view different type of conversations at a glance. Similar to the unread folder that has already been introduced, users will soon be able to categorize their chat room into various folders such as family or work according to their own needs. Within those folders, favorite rooms will be automatically sorted for easier access, providing a more comfortable and organized user experience. Also, we applied the AI summary service to the unread folder and are currently monitoring user reaction. Once its utility is verified, we plan to gradually expand it to additional areas. This service allows AI to summarize the vast number of messages exchanged across multiple chat rooms so that users can easily grasp the flow and key points of conversation across different chats without having to open each 1 individually, creating a far more efficient messaging environment. Through the remainder of this year and into 2026, Kakao will continue to humbly listen to use our feedback striving to find the right balance between preserving the stability of the existing service experience and driving platform innovation that fuels sustainable business growth.

Next, I'd like to talk about AI. Another key pillar driving Kakao's growth. Last quarter, Kakao announced its vision of AI for everyone with the goal of enabling all users in Korea to experience AI seamlessly within Kakao Talk. As a result of these efforts, we are proud to introduce 2 significant milestones in October. The one on device AI service, Kanana in Talk and ChatGPT for Kakao jointly developed with OpenAI. Over the past year, Kakao has transformed its organizational work structure into an AI studio designed to encourage diverse experimentation. Small agile teams now build MVPs rapidly validate user feedback and market potential and continuously experiment with new AI services.

Last week, we launched ChatGPT for Kakao, a powerful integration between Korea's most dominant Messenger platform and the world's most widely used AI service, located directly within Kakao Talk [indiscernible] chat where millions of users engaged multiple times a day, ChatGPT for Kakao offers unmatch accessibility, allowing anyone to use it quickly and easily. This service is powered by the GPT-5 model. And as ChatGPT models are updated in the future, those upgrades will be applied simultaneously ensuring that users can always experience the latest version of ChatGPT within Kakao Talk. ChatGPT for Kakao is deeply integrated into the chat experience. Whenever a user has a question during a conversation, they can instantly ask ChatGPT and share its response directly within the chat room. In addition, [indiscernible] Kakao's proprietary agent, Kakao tools, users can connect seamlessly to a wide range of Kakao services and perform desired actions immediately without complex menu navigations or switching between apps, offering a truly integrated agent experience. Although still in its early stage, ChatGPT for Kakao has already shown strong momentum with cumulative user numbers rising rapidly. The average number of messages that per active user and overall time spent within the service are also clearly trending upwards.

As Kakao tool becomes connected to more services, we expect AI experience in users' daily lives to expand further, leading to a greater use of user engagement and longer time spent within Kakao Talk. Kakao's ultimate goal for its AI services is to realize agentic AI on an autonomous and proactive intelligence, they can set its own goals, plan ahead and act flexibly based on context and circumstances. While the conventional AI is a unit-type artificial intelligence designed to precisely carry out a single goal or task, agentic AI can precisely understand users intact within context, combine multiple agents to determine the best path towards achieving higher level objective and make its own decision to act accordingly. This year, Kakao took its first important step towards realizing this vision of agentic AI. To begin with, Kakao has established 2 key services, top 20. Kanana and Talk and ChatGPT for Kakao that enable accurate understanding of user intent within conversational context. Kakao Talk already holds a uniquely rich conversational data set that no other platform can replicate. Kanana and Talk powered by Kakao's on-device AI model can proactively understand users' needs in the safest possible way and suggest relevant information or actions even before being explicitly asked.

Meanwhile, through ChatGPT for Kakao, users can directly request information or actions from the AI agent whenever they need to. Next year, Kakao will continue expanding those touch points between users and agents, introducing additional services such as Kanana search which will further enhance our ability to understand user intent and context. As explained earlier, once user intent is identified across various service touch points, numerous specialized agents, each with own area of expertise, communicate and collaborate to perform the necessary actions to fulfill users' needs. For this reason, the active participation of agents specialized in different verticals within the ecosystem represents another key pillar in building agent AI. The Kakao tools introduced alongside last week's launch of ChatGPT for Kakao represents an early form of Kakao's AI agent. Currently, agents from Kakao [indiscernible], Kakao Gift and [indiscernible] are already integrated, and we plan to expand connections to key B2C verticals within the group such as finance and mobility in the near future. Furthermore, through Play MCP and Agent Builder, Kakao is establishing an open platform for AI agents and technological foundation that allows anyone regardless of size or capability to participate in the agent AI ecosystem under Kakao's trusted authentication and security framework. Building on this foundation, starting next year, we plan to rapidly expand the AI ecosystem by connecting a diverse range of external tools and agents beyond the Kakao Group.

We take great pride in being ahead of anyone else and realizing agent AI. As mentioned last quarter, we are moving beyond a time when users had to search for apps and navigate complex menus. We expect a rapid shift to models where services are delivered and executed simply through conversations with AI agents. Starting this quarter, Kakao will connect more users with a broader range of services, building agentic AI that enables users to accomplish tasks and complete actions through conversations alone. Once users experience this level of convenience, it will become an irreversible way of interacting with services. Though we are still in the early stages, we will advance step-by-step and firmly establish Kakao as Korea's leading growth company in the AI era.

Next, Jayden, our CFO, will present the third quarter 2025 financial highlights.

[Jong-Hwan Shin, executive]

[Interpreted] In the third quarter, Kakao recorded its highest ever quarterly revenue for 2 consecutive quarters, driven by continued solid growth in the Platform segment and better-than-expected performance in the content segment. Furthermore, we are delivering on our commitment to achieve growth worthy of a true growth stock with consolidated revenue growth to around 9% for the first time in 6 quarters. In line with this momentum, operating profit surpassed KRW 200 billion for the first time ever, driven by group-wide efforts to enhance operational efficiency and accelerated top line growth bringing our operating margin to 10%, the highest level in 4 years.

Now moving on to our revenue for this quarter. Consolidated revenue for the third quarter was KRW 2,086 billion, up 9% Y-o-Y and 3% Q-o-Q. Platform revenue for the third quarter was KRW [ 1,598 billion ], growing 12% Y-o-Y and remaining at a similar level Q-o-Q. First, Kakao's core business Talk Biz recorded KRW 534 billion, up 7% Y-o-Y, but down 1% Q-on-Q. Under Talk Biz advertising, business messaging continued its strong momentum, while display ads, which had been sluggish rebounded resulting in revenue of KRW 325.4 billion, up 11% Y-o-Y and 1% Q-on-Q. Business Messaging revenue grew 22% Y-o-Y, achieving another record high quarterly revenue following last quarter, as we continue to expand the range of message formats available for advertisers, particularly in the financial sector.

And as Kakao Talk was widely utilized as a major marketing channel, local incentive programs led by the government, which drove a notable increase in message volume. We believe business messaging has now entered a virtuous growth cycle as not only the number of advertisers is increasing meaningfully but existing advertisers. Having experience, the efficiency of message ads are also significantly expanding their message volumes. Accordingly, we expect the strong growth trend of business messaging to continue into next year rather than being a one-off in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, display ad revenue posted a meaningful turnaround, returning to growth for the first time in 5 quarters despite the third quarter being a seasonally weak period. This was driven by enhancements to the competitiveness of existing ad inventory and diversification of ad products within Kakao Talk. Next, total commerce GMV reached KRW 2.5 trillion, up 4% Y-o-Y and 1% Q-o-Q. Revenue came in at KRW 208.7 billion remaining similar Y-o-Y, but decreasing 6% Q-o-Q. Talk Biz GMV increased 1% Y-o-Y despite the Chuseok holidays, a seasonal peak happening in October this year, shifting the seasonal effect from the third quarter to the fourth.

Additionally, as some orders placed at the end of September were delivered and recognized in October, revenue recognition was also affected. In the fourth quarter, we expect both GMV and revenue growth to accelerate again, reflecting deferred transactions from the third quarter and the additional boost from year-end seasonality. Meanwhile, self-purchases the new growth driver of Talk Gift maintained solid growth.

In the third quarter, we strengthened promotions by introducing exclusive product lineups and new items from popular brands for the first time. As a result, the number of self-purchase users increased 19% Y-o-Y and self-purchase GMV rose 40% Y-o-Y. As the share of self-purchase GMV continues to rise meaningfully within Talk Gift, we will continue to drive growth in commerce centered on the 2 growth pillars of stable gifting demand and expanding self purchases.

Moving on, portal revenue was KRW 72.7 billion, down 5% Y-o-Y and 7% Q-o-Q. The portal business plans complete the transfer of operations to the newly established subsidiary, AXZ by year-end without delay, after which we will share more detailed strategic directions.

Next, Revenue for Platform Other was KRW 452.7 billion, up 24% Y-o-Y and 4% Q-o-Q mainly driven by solid performances from Kakao Mobility and Kakao Pay. In the third quarter, Kakao Mobility continued its model of growth of providing its platform and operational know-how to regional taxi operators, enabling them to operate their own franchise businesses. Also, Kakao Pay achieved its highest ever quarterly operating profit, driven by accelerated revenue growth from financial subsidiaries including securities and insurance as well as strong performance from data-driven platform services.

Now moving on to the content segment. The consolidated revenue was [ KRW 1,267 billion ], up 5% Y-o-Y and 6% Q-o-Q. The overall story business revenue of Kakao Entertainment and Piccoma recorded KRW 211.4 billion, down 3% both Y-o-Y and Q-o-Q. For Kakao Entertainment, we remain focused on maintaining its profitability-oriented management approach. Second, amid intensified competition in Japan's comic market since last year, Piccoma has been leveraging its unique platform competitiveness to build a foundation for sustainable growth.

This quarter, Piccoma strategically refrained from excessive marketing and instead focused on selective campaigns aimed during the summer vacation period, enhancing user engagement and spending within the platform. As a result, Piccoma achieved its highest ever quarterly revenue in yen, maintained its position as the #1 grossing app in Japan's app market year-to-date and nearly doubled its operating profit Y-o-Y. Secondly, the music revenue within the Content division was KRW 565.2 billion up 20% Y-o-Y and 9% Q-o-Q. Solid performances by major artists, coupled with growth from newer artists helped smooth quarterly activity fluctuations and drive consistent results. In addition, our music division strengthened project-based merchandise and off-line pop-ups to expand fan experiences, thereby establishing a virtuous cycle in our IP business. Lastly, media revenue was KRW 95.8 billion, up 75% Y-o-Y and 2% Q-on-Q. This growth was driven by the recognition of deferred work and higher production progress, resulting in a significant Y-o-Y increase from a low base, while remaining at a similar level Q-o-Q.

Wrapping up on our revenue. Operating expenses for the third quarter were KRW [ 1,878.5 billion ], up 5% Y-o-Y and 2% Q-on-Q. Labor cost was KRW 477.4 billion, up 4% Y-o-Y, but down 2% Q-o-Q. The Y-o-Y increase was due to higher bonuses reflecting subsidiaries' first half performance and higher employee-related costs, including social insurance, while the Q-o-Q decline reflects our continued conservative hiring stance across the group. Marketing expense was KRW 101.8 billion, down 3% Y-o-Y, but up 16% Q-o-Q as marketing activities expanded across subsidiaries. Marketing accounted for 5% of consolidated revenue both in the quarter and cumulatively year-to-date, in line with our initial annual guidance within the 6% range. Revenue linked costs were KRW 747.7 billion similar Y-o-Y, but up 4% Q-o-Q, reflecting higher settlement expenses linked to increased content revenue.

The ratio of revenue-linked cost to consolidated revenue stood at 36%. Outsourcing and infrastructure costs totaled KRW 260.7 billion, up 34% Y-o-Y and 12% Q-o-Q due to subsidiary account reclassifications from last year and higher infrastructure spending related to the launch of AI services. Depreciation and amortization expenses were KRW 208.3 billion, down 1% Y-o-Y and 6% Q-o-Q. The Y-o-Y decline reflects partial reversal of bad debt expenses, while the Q-on-Q decrease is due to the high base from content license, amortization at Kakao Entertainment in the previous quarter.

Overall, consolidated operating profit for the third quarter was KRW 208 billion with an operating margin of 10%, improving by 3 percentage points Y-o-Y. Going forward, we will continue to pursue structural improvement in profitability based on an optimized cost structure. Nonoperating income for the third quarter was KRW 46.6 billion, up KRW 41.4 billion Y-o-Y and KRW 37.6 billion Q-on-Q. The Y-o-Y improvement was mainly due to the base effect from one-off bad debt expenses at Kakao Pay last year and reduced interest expenses following the repayment of exchangeable bonds.

Equity method gains were KRW 19.6 billion, similar to both the previous quarter and the same period last year. Corporate income tax for the third quarter was KRW 61.8 billion and consolidated net income was KRW 192.9 billion. Lastly, CapEx totaled KRW 178.4 billion, including KRW 144.1 billion for tangible assets and KRW 34.3 billion for intangible assets. CapEx increased KRW 89.8 billion Y-o-Y and KRW 78.9 billion Q-o-Q, mainly due to new asset purchases by subsidiaries and expanded server investments required for Kakao Talk service operations.

This ends the presentation on quarter 3, 2025 earnings. We will now move on to Q&A. Because we have limited time, please be ask that you refrain from asking more than 2 questions.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] [Operator Instructions]

The first question will be provided by Hee-Seok Lim from Mirae Asset Securities.

[Hee-Seok Lim, analyst]

[Interpreted] I do have 2 questions. Number one, since the September Kakao Talk renewal, I would like to ask what the user engagement was like? And also moving on to the second question. As in the third quarter is double-digit growth in the advertising business achievable in the fourth quarter, in line with the initial guidance.

[Shina Chung, executive]

[Interpreted] Yes, I would like to take your first question. Let me briefly update you on the key changes in user engagement following the Kakao Talk revamp. During the exceptional period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the average daily time spent on Kakao Talk user increased by only about 10 seconds. Based on that experience, we internally assess that it would be quite challenging for a messenger type platform to increase user time spent.

However, after the update, we confirm that a rebound in user time key KPI compared with the pre revamped third quarter average, the average daily time spend has increased from the 24-minute range to a level nearing 26 minutes. We consider it meaningful that time spent, which had been steadily stabilizing downward has begun to turn upward for the first time.

While traffic in the [indiscernible] chat remains robust, the time spent in the friends chat and the Now chat, which largely consists of content exploration and discovery traffic has increased by more than 10% compared with the third quarter average after the revamp. We view it as a particularly positive that platform traffic, which had previously been heavily concentrated within chatrooms, is now expanding into non-chat tabs thereby improving the overall quality of traffic across the [indiscernible] chat platform.

As noted in my opening remarks, we will continue to enhance Kanana Talk's core chat functionality by providing greater convenience to users and by incorporating diverse feedback to continuously improve the platform. Through these efforts, we aim to reinforce various usage contexts that encourage users across the country to spend more time on Kakao Talk.

Last but not least, we believe that the post revamp increase in time spent is now just starting. We will do our utmost to achieve the 20% increase in Kakao Talk time spend that we communicated at the beginning of the year.

[Jong-Hwan Shin, executive]

[Interpreted] I will address the question regarding the achievability of our Q4 advertising guidance. To state the conclusion of funds, we expect to comfortably deliver the double-digit year-over-year growth in top Bs, advertising revenue for the fourth quarter that we committed to at the beginning of the year. As I've advanced in our Q3 results, advertising growth has reaccelerated as a result of the solid fundamentals we have steadily built within the platform.

First, with respect to business messages, as mentioned in my opening remarks, we believe the current high growth trajectory is sustainable. In addition, despite the prolonged slowdown in the domestic advertising market during the Q3, it is meaningful that display advertising exited its 5-quarter trend of negative growth and returned to an upward trajectory. This stems from our continued efforts to enhance the competitiveness of advertising products within talk. In addition, during the Q3, we observed some advertisers reallocating budget previously assigned through competing platforms to Kakao.

[Stanley Yang, analyst]

[Interpreted] Since the Kakao Talk revamp at the end of September was rolled out to users progressively over the course of a week. The impact of the new product lineup optimized for the newly created inventory for Kakao Talk was barely reflected in Q3. Nonetheless, Kakao's advertising business achieved a record high quarterly revenue in the third quarter and September recorded the highest monthly revenue on record. Based on this momentum, we expect that starting in the fourth quarter, our growth rates will demonstrate that Kakao's advertising business has entered a structural growth base.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] The following question will be presented by Seokoh Kang from Shinhan Investment and Securities.

[SeokO Kang, analyst]

[Interpreted] I also have two questions. First of all, last month, ChatGPT for Kakao and Kanana in Kakao Talk were launched. Could you share the initial metrics for these 2 AI services? My second question is, I believe that there is a lot of opportunities in terms of business in the area of AI. So what are catalysts plans for external partners to participate in the Agent ecosystem? What are your detailed strategies?

[Shina Chung, executive]

[Interpreted] First, with respect to Kanana in Kakao Talk, we are gauging user acceptance and receptiveness to our on-device AI model based on positive feedback from core users. However, as we are currently operating a CBT with limited features for a small user group, we believe it is too early to say and share quantitative performance metrics. We plan to officially open the service in the first quarter of next year to all users with compatible devices, and we will provide more detailed metrics once the service is fully rolled out.

With respect to ChatGPT for Kakao, as mentioned in my opening remarks, the service still in its early days and full-scale marketing has not yet begun. Nevertheless, as of yesterday, 10 days after launch, the number of users who agree to the terms and began using the service exceeded 2 million. Supported by initial service stability and strong accessibility, both outbound messages per active user and time spent are showing a pronounced upward trend, which we consider quite encouraging.

In particular, the average daily time spend per active user reached approximately 4 minutes as of yesterday. The fact that average time spent per active user has increased to this level indicates that with the launch of AI services, such as ChatGPT for Kakao and ChatGPT talks usage tox usage is beginning to extend beyond simple messaging toward more exploration and search-driven behaviors.

Although these changes are still at a very early stage, we believe that the signal the potential for a substantial increase in overall time spent on Kakao Talk. In addition, as marketing activities and increasing user awareness of the service began this week, we expect the related metrics to show a more pronounced upward trajectory.

Given that the service is still in its initial phase, our immediate priority is to ensure that more users can naturally experience and become familiar with AI in their daily lives through Kakao Talk. Once a solid user base is established, we plan to begin expanding paid subscriptions and accelerating product enhancement toward the end of the year. Even if not all users convert to paid plans in the near term, we believe it is meaningful that users are beginning to normalize search within talk and are spending more time on the platform itself.

This signals that Kakao Talk is evolving beyond a simple messenger and is generating new usage experiences and traffic. We believe that these shifts will ultimately translate into greater scalability and monetization potential for Kakao's AI services over the long term.

Now moving on, let me briefly address Kakao's external expansion plan for the agency ecosystem. Now that we have begun establishing touch points between users and agents within Kakao Talk, one of my highest priority agendas as CEO is to fully expand the agent ecosystem and enhance the everyday convenience that users experience the group through Kakao's AI.

Kakao intends to expand the agentic ecosystem beyond Kakao by leveraging the strong B2C service portfolio held by Kakao Group companies. starting next year for vertical services that Kakao does not currently operate but that users rely on daily and frequently, we plan to engage directly with short head partners regarding participation in the ecosystem while addressing the long tail segment through an agent marketplace.

As briefly mentioned in my opening remarks, we plan to actively expand and open agent ecosystem centered on Play NGP and the agent builder to rapidly broaden the participation from partners of various sizes. Based on this foundation, we aim to narrow the gap between services that users want to engage with and the many services that seek to reach users, thereby building an ecosystem that can meet emerging user behaviors and needs in the AI era.

For the short head segment, although we are still in the early stages, and it is premature to provide specific details. We are already receiving interest and partnership increase from key partners in major verticals that users rely on daily and frequently, including commerce, finance and trouble. Beginning next year, we expect to demonstrate the participation of leading industry players in the AI ecosystem that Kakao is building.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] because of time constraints, we will take 1 final question. The last question will be presented by [ Menda Kang ] from Bernstein.

[Unknown Analyst]

[Interpreted] And first of all, congratulations on your performance. I have 2 questions. First of all, the third quarter operating profit was very strong. Were there any one-off gains reflected and also, what is your guidance on your fourth quarter outlook? Do you think that the achievements from the second quarter and third quarter will continue on into the fourth quarter?

[Shina Chung, executive]

[Interpreted] We did not identify any notable one-off items in the third quarter results. As in the second quarter, structural profitability improvements across our fits were a key driver of the strong performance in the third quarter. In the Platform segment, operating profit contribution from platform and others improved significantly. And in the content segment, Piccoma and SM Entertainment also delivered substantial -- substantially higher operating profit contributions.

Let me also address the fourth quarter outlook. In the Platform segment, we expect positive results across take advertising and commerce as well as in mobility and pay with Platform other. As mentioned earlier, we estimate that top advertising will deliver year-over-year revenue growth of more than 10%. In commerce, we expect a higher year-over-year revenue growth rate than in the third quarter. supported by the recognition of deferred holiday gift demand from the previous quarter and the continued strong growth of self-purchase GMV within the Talk Gift service.

In mobility & Pay, we expect revenue growth to be driven by the quick parcel delivery service and the securities business emerging as new growth engines. At the same time, continued cost optimization that should further expand their contribution to consolidated operating profit within the Platform Other segment. By contrast in the content segment, which have performed better than initially expected through the third quarter, we expect a quarter-over-quarter revenue decline.

In games, the gap in the new title contributions is extending longer than anticipated and revenues from existing titles are stabilizing at lower levels, which is expected to continue placing pressure on profitability. In the Music segment as well, we expect an overall slowdown in business momentum to be unavailable due to seasonal softness.

On the cost side, it is true that profitability pressures have increased as we continue to scale investments in core businesses, essential for Kakao's sustainable mid- to long-term growth. However, these investments are being executed within the range anticipated at the beginning of the year, and we are consistently working to establish an efficient cost execution framework to ensure that overall profitability remains intact.

[Jeffrey Shin, executive]

[Interpreted] This concludes the conference call of Kakao Corporation for Q3 2025. Thank you for your attendance.

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]