Polaris Office announced on May 16 that it recorded consolidated sales of 74.4 billion KRW and operating profit of 2 billion KRW in the first quarter of this year.
These figures represent increases of 60% and 15%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. The improvement in performance was driven by the expansion of software (SW) solution sales, including its core AI office business, as well as strong results from its affiliates. Major subsidiaries Polaris Sewon and Polaris Uno contributed to overall growth with sales growth rates of 13% and 10%, respectively.
Polaris Sewon posted sales of 21 billion KRW, up 13% year-on-year, thanks to increased supply of hybrid vehicle parts, which are in high global demand. Polaris Uno saw an increase in product orders in the Nigerian market, Africa's largest consumer market.
In addition, the inclusion of Polaris AI and Polaris AI Pharma, which have been consolidated since the second quarter of last year, also had a positive impact on overall performance. Polaris Office, which focuses on the SW solution business, did not show a significant increase in core business sales this quarter, but is evaluated as having secured a solid foundation for future growth. This is attributed to the increase in the number of AI subscription plan users, a key indicator for B2C (business-to-consumer) paid subscription services.
In fact, as a result of a promotion held in March, the number of paid subscribers to the AI plan surged by an impressive 551% compared to the same period last year. The company has strengthened its stable revenue structure by expanding its base of paid subscribers and has established a foothold for further growth in subscription payments.
Recently, as major AI models such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Stable Diffusion have become paid services, consumer burden from individual subscriptions has increased. Against this backdrop, Polaris Office is drawing attention for its differentiated approach of integrating various AI services and offering them at reasonable prices. The company plans to continue its long-term growth by strengthening its marketing as a value-for-money solution.
Furthermore, the collaboration solution and business-to-business (B2B) segments are also maintaining solid growth. As more companies pursue digital transformation, B2B solutions such as 'Polaris Docs' and 'Web Drafting Tool' saw first-quarter sales rise by 51% year-on-year.
In the enterprise collaboration solution business, subscription-based cloud versions of global company Atlassian's 'Jira' and 'Confluence' are seeing steady sales growth. These strong results indicate that demand for cloud-based solutions is rapidly expanding.
A Polaris Office representative stated, "The expansion of subscription-based solutions and B2B sales demonstrates that Polaris Office is establishing a more predictable growth trajectory, less susceptible to short-term revenue fluctuations," adding, "Strengthening differentiated services such as Atlassian add-on products and providing customer-tailored features will have a positive effect on future subscriber and revenue growth."
The representative continued, "We will focus on expanding our paid subscriber base through a variety of subscription products and innovations in user experience, while also accelerating performance growth in our core solution business." They added, "In the long term, we plan to maximize synergy with our affiliates through a vertical AI strategy and actively pursue joint growth at the group level."
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