[Click eStock] "Kakao's Core Business and AI Service Growth Will Determine Stock Price"

Hana Securities analyzed that the growth of Kakao's core business and artificial intelligence (AI) services will be the key factors determining its future stock price.

Kakao recorded consolidated sales of 2.0049 trillion KRW and an operating profit of 134 billion KRW in the second quarter of this year. These figures represent increases of 4.2% and 18.5% respectively compared to the same period last year, meeting market expectations. Junho Lee, a researcher at Hana Securities, explained, "Despite the unfavorable economic conditions, there was steady growth in Talk Biz advertising," adding, "Among expenses, marketing costs for Piccoma increased due to intensified competition in Japan, but infrastructure fees temporarily decreased following the business transfer of Brain, maintaining a stable level."

When announcing its second-quarter results, Kakao stated that it plans to launch an interactive B2C (business-to-consumer) AI service as a separate app distinct from KakaoTalk in the second half of the year. Researcher Lee predicted, "If the goal is a launch in the second half, a detailed announcement about this AI service will be made soon," and added, "It is expected to utilize both external AI models and in-house models." He further noted, "Depending on the concretization of the app and the initial traffic acquisition, a stock price revaluation is possible," emphasizing, "Ultimately, the growth of the core business and artificial intelligence (AI) services will be the key factors determining the future stock price."