[Special Stock] Cafe24 Maximizes Profitability with AI... Expanding Ecosystem of Google and YouTube Shopping Up

Cafe24 is showing strong performance. The news of successfully turning a profit due to cost efficiency and increased sales of payment solutions appears to be influencing the stock price.

As of 10:10 AM on the 9th, Cafe24 is trading at 18,920 KRW, up 16.79% from the previous day.

In the first quarter of this year, Cafe24 recorded consolidated operating revenue of 66.9 billion KRW and operating profit of 2.2 billion KRW. Compared to the same period last year, sales increased by 1.6%, and operating profit turned positive.

Junho Lee, a researcher at Hana Securities, explained, "By actively utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) technology, they are efficiently managing labor costs while increasing productivity," adding, "It was possible because they proactively introduced AI technology into business and internal work processes, minimizing resource input."

He continued, "They are also expanding AI-based customer services," and added, "They are onboarding and providing AI-based product matching and content creation apps."

He emphasized, "Representative examples include the AI content creation platform Rytton and the AI fashion coordination platform Stylebot," and said, "The introduction of AI services can enhance the competitiveness of SMEs, which relatively lack capital and manpower, and lower the hurdles for store startups." Furthermore, he explained, "The launch of services utilizing generative AI will gradually increase," and added, "By providing these to SME and own-mall operators, we expect growth in the Cafe24 ecosystem."

The researcher forecasted, "Cafe24's shopping mall transaction amount (GMV) this year is estimated at 12.37 trillion KRW," and predicted, "References from Cafe24-linked stores in the budding stage of YouTube Shopping will lead to future GMV growth."

Shinhan Investment Corp. raised Cafe24's operating profit estimate for this year by 60%, from 12.8 billion KRW to 20 billion KRW. Aram Kim, a researcher at Shinhan Investment Corp., analyzed, "As cost efficiency efforts are entering the final stage, labor costs this year are not expected to increase significantly from the quarterly level of 25 billion KRW."

She added, "YouTube Shopping is understood to be progressing smoothly," emphasizing, "They are actively consulting with the Google division, focusing on creating references and expanding the ecosystem."