Following the announcement of a net loss, Kakao's stock price has been retreating.
As of 10:14 a.m. on the 13th, Kakao is trading at 40,850 won, down 2.74% from the previous day.
On the same day, Kakao announced that it recorded sales of 7.8738 trillion won and an operating profit of 491.5 billion won last year, but it reported a net loss of 43.6 billion won. Although the loss scale has decreased compared to the previous year, the market is witnessing selling due to disappointment in performance.
In particular, last week, a competitor, Naver, announced that it recorded a net profit of 1.8621 trillion won, making comparisons more striking.
Kakao recorded a net loss of 276.9 billion won in the fourth quarter of last year alone. During this period, the revenue from the content institutional sector decreased by 13% year-on-year to 910.1 billion won, as major subsidiaries such as Kakao Games, Kakao Piccoma, and Kakao Entertainment experienced a simultaneous decline in revenue.
The revenue from the music institutional sector decreased by 6% year-on-year to 470.2 billion won, the story revenue fell 5% to 203 billion won, and media revenue decreased by 25% to 73.9 billion won. The downward trend in the content institutional sector is attributed to the deepening void in the intellectual property (IP) lineup.
Kakao noted, "In the case of the content institutional sector, there is expected to be business uncertainty this year as well, so we plan to focus on financial soundness improvement as well as a search for selection and concentration."