[Special Stock] ZoomInternet Wins Government Digital New Deal AI Contract... Expectations for Techfin Business with KB Securities

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Zoom Internet's stock price is rising strongly after partnering with KB Securities to develop a new concept stock trading platform. The news of winning an artificial intelligence (AI) government project appears to have influenced the stock price.

As of 2:27 PM on the 5th, Zoom Internet was trading at 8,000 KRW, up 25.00% (1,600 KRW) compared to the previous trading day.

On the same day, ESTsoft announced that it had won a total of 10 billion KRW worth of AI government projects together with Zoom Internet, ESTsecurity, and others. Zoom Internet, a subsidiary of ESTsoft, is a comprehensive internet company operating Zoom.com, the third largest portal in Korea. It established a joint venture (JV) called 'Project Vanilla' with KB Securities to develop a Korean-style Robinhood. Financial and fintech expert Koo Dae-mo, who led new businesses at Toss and KakaoPay, was appointed as the head of the joint venture.

KB Financial Group and Zoom Internet are developing a mobile trading system (MTS), one of the stock trading platforms, aiming for a launch in February next year. Their goal is to innovate the account opening process to be easier within regulatory limits and to create services that assist in selecting stocks for the first trade.

Project Vanilla will carry out various financial innovation projects starting with the MTS. It has set a goal to expand into comprehensive asset management services. The aim is to grow into a company like the U.S. AI asset management firms WealthFront and Batterment.

Meanwhile, winning the AI government project can serve as a certification of Zoom Internet's technological capabilities. Zoom Internet was selected as the lead operator of the consortium for the AI data construction project for video content understanding, one of the 'Second Phase AI Learning Data Construction Projects' by the Korea Information Society Development Institute.