South Korean internet company Kakao has reported that it turned profit for the third quarter as the company enjoyed better performance in its mobile-related business.
The reported net profit for the quarter ending in September was 14.8 billion won ($12.78 in contrast to the company’s net loss of 6.31 billion won ($5.44 million) for the third quarter of 2014.
Revenue for the third quarter this year was 229.6 billion won ($198.27 million) — an increase of 7.8 billion won for the same quarter last year.
The company, which built on the huge domestic success of its messenger app, has been diversifying into a wide range of product and service streams from KakaoTaxi to KakaoPay services.
“Kakao will continue to connect various sectors of the economy ranging from O2O, content, search, game, ads and finance, and embrace innovative attempts and challenges to strengthen its position as a mobile lifestyle platform company,” the company said in a statement.
Highlights from the 3Q earnings report:
- Monthly active users of the messenger app, KakaoTalk, increased to 39 million.
- Advertising revenue rose 0.7 of a percentage point to 142.9 billion won while the
- The gaming business took a 23.8 percent plunge in sales to 51.4 billion won ($44.38 million) this in part to the offloading of shares of game developer OnNet Co.
- KakaoTaxi has 180,000 registered drivers and received 37 million requests in the seven months since the launch of the KakaoTaxi ride app.
Moving forward the company said it will link several industries, including finance, gaming, shopping, and transport to the mobile platform with “the goal of delivering everything users need, unbound by time or location”.
