[Featured Stock] Kakao Hits Record-High Q2 Earnings, Surges Over 4%

On August 7, Kakao shares surged in early trading. The record-breaking second quarter earnings appear to have stimulated investor sentiment.

As of 9:15 a.m. on this day, Kakao was trading at 59,200 won, up 2,400 won (4.23%) from the previous trading day.

On this day, Kakao announced that its consolidated sales for the second quarter reached 2.0283 trillion won, a 1% increase compared to the same period last year. Operating profit was 185.9 billion won, up 39% from the same period last year. Both sales and operating profit marked the highest quarterly figures in the company's history.

By business segment, sales in the platform division for the second quarter of this year were 1.0552 trillion won, up 10% from the same period last year. Within the platform division, Talk Biz sales reached 542.1 billion won, a 7% increase year-on-year. Of this, Talk Biz advertising sales in the second quarter were 321 billion won, up 4% from the same period last year.

Kakao is preparing a major overhaul of its KakaoTalk service. In terms of artificial intelligence (AI), the company is laying the foundation for expanding the AI ecosystem, from infrastructure to language models, while also planning to sequentially launch a variety of services in the second half of the year that will allow all citizens to easily access AI in their daily lives.

On the previous day, Kang Seokoh, a researcher at Shinhan Investment Corp., stated in a report, "The current share price does not reflect any expectations that the company can succeed in the AI Agent business," adding, "A revaluation is expected, driven by the results of collaboration with OpenAI and recognition of new revenue models."