Namgung Hun Leaving Kakao After 8 Years "A New Start with AI Business"

Namgoong Hoon, former CEO of Kakao, has left Kakao and announced a new start as a prospective entrepreneur.

On the 4th, Namgoong posted on his Facebook, "After spending the past 8 years with Kakao, I will part ways at the end of October and begin a new life."

Namgoong joined the Kakao community in 2015 when the game company Engine was acquired by Kakao. He was appointed CEO of Kakao in 2022 but resigned after 7 months, taking responsibility for service disruptions caused by a data center fire. Afterwards, he served as a full-time advisor at Kakao’s Future Initiative Center, which plans the company’s future strategies.

Namgoong will start anew as an invited professor at Sogang University. He said, "Starting this fall semester at Sogang University, I will teach a liberal arts course called 'Preparing for the Working World' as an invited professor. I want to approach my dream of becoming a teacher by sharing the knowledge I have gained through work with students, educating them on career considerations and the attitudes they should have as members of society."

He is also preparing to establish a scholarship foundation. Namgoong promised, "With gratitude for the benefits I have received from society, I will establish a scholarship foundation (or donate to a scholarship fund) to continue social contribution activities."

He added that he has not given up on his dream of becoming an entrepreneur. He expressed his ambition to enter the market with interest in the entertainment content artificial intelligence (AI) sector. Namgoong emphasized, "I believe South Korea has great competitiveness in the entertainment content AI field. The competitiveness of the music, video, and game industries, which have grown individually so far, will greatly explode in this era as they meet AI."