Wemade's Jang Hyun-guk: "We Will Achieve Trillion-Won Sales This Year... Confirming Blockchain Potential"

Jang Hyun-guk, CEO of Wemade, is being interviewed on the 3rd at Wemade headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. / Seongnam = Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

Jang Hyun-guk, CEO of Wemade, expressed his ambition to achieve trillion-won level sales this year. He also declared that the gaming division will turn profitable this year, escaping two consecutive years of losses, based on sales growth and the expansion of blockchain business.

During the 2023 Q4 earnings conference call held on the morning of the 7th, CEO Jang stated, "2024 will be a year of significant growth for the company, built on two years of investment and preparation."

He added, "Last year, we achieved over 30% sales growth. The gaming division led the sales growth, and blockchain confirmed sustainable growth," and forecasted, "In addition to launching Mir IP (intellectual property) games in China, Night Crow Global, Fantastic4Baseball, and Imir will drive sales growth."

CEO Jang said, "Blockchain sales have been steadily growing on a monthly basis since the second half of last year, and Night Crow Global will accelerate this growth," adding, "The success of Mir4 Global about two years ago was sudden, so we could not expand it further, but Night Crow Global will achieve much greater success and spread throughout the game platform and the entire WEMIX ecosystem, becoming a catalyst for blockchain growth."

Based on this sales growth, CEO Jang explained that operating profit improvement can be achieved this year. He said, "We recorded significant losses over the past two years due to investments made to prepare for new businesses, but this year will be a year to reap the fruits of those investments and report a turnaround to profitability."

Regarding the increased operating loss despite sales growth last year, he explained that the impact of approximately 100 billion KRW increase in payment fees was significant. This was because Mad Engine, the developer of the hit game Night Crow which recorded 230 billion KRW in sales last year, was not a consolidated subsidiary.

However, CEO Jang explained that through a merger with Mad Engine within this year, payment fees will no longer be incurred. Wemade currently holds equity in Mad Engine. He said, "Although I cannot say exactly when, we plan to change the structure so that payment fees paid to Mad Engine will no longer occur within this year."

Meanwhile, Wemade recorded consolidated sales of 607.2 billion KRW and an operating loss of 112.6 billion KRW last year. Sales increased by 31% year-on-year, while operating loss expanded by 25%. In Q4 last year, sales were 118.4 billion KRW, operating loss was 70.8 billion KRW, and net loss was 189.6 billion KRW, respectively.