Kakao Pay Posts 15.8 Billion Won Operating Profit in Q3... "First Triple-Digit Quarterly Profit"

Financial and Platform Revenue Up 70%
CEO Shin Wonkeun: "Platform to Serve as Foundation for Next Year's Strategy"

Kakao Pay's quarterly operating profit has surpassed 10 billion won for the first time. The company continued its upward momentum after turning a profit on a consolidated operating basis in the first quarter.

On November 4, Kakao Pay announced that its consolidated operating profit for the third quarter reached 15.8 billion won, turning a profit compared to the same period last year. This represents a 69.4% increase from the previous quarter. The operating margin stood at 6.6%.

A Kakao Pay representative stated, "Profitability and revenue improved across all business areas, strengthening our overall profit structure."

Consolidated revenue for the third quarter was 238.4 billion won, up 28% year-on-year. Financial and platform services drove revenue growth.

Revenue from payment services totaled 129.7 billion won, a 5.5% increase compared to the same period last year. All segments of the payment business saw growth, with offline and overseas payments-both with significant expansion potential-posting double-digit growth and leading the upward trend. Kakao Pay has previously introduced an 'NFC payment' solution based on Mastercard technology, the first of its kind among domestic simple payment services, to enhance the convenience of overseas payments.

Revenue from financial services was 94.7 billion won, up 72% year-on-year. Investment service revenue surged by 155.4% as stock trading volume increased significantly. Insurance service revenue also rose by 72.2%.

Revenue from platform services was 14 billion won, a 69.2% increase compared to the same period last year. The company increased revenue from advertising and card recommendation services.

The total transaction volume for the third quarter was 47 trillion won, up 12% year-on-year. Transaction volume contributing to revenue (TPV) increased by 8% during the same period, reaching 13.4 trillion won and maintaining the level of 29% of total transaction volume, as in the previous quarter.

By segment, transaction volume for payment services increased by 14% year-on-year, driven by the growth of offline and overseas payments. Transaction volume for money transfer services also rose by 13% due to the surge in stock trading. The Kakao Pay Money balance surpassed 2 trillion won for the first time, reaching 2.0961 trillion won.

Shin Wonkeun, CEO of Kakao Pay, stated, "As this year's core strategies-expanding data-driven and platform businesses-have translated into tangible results, we believe this will serve as a foundation for setting our direction for next year."