Kakao will hold its first overseas investor briefing attended by its chief executive officer (CEO) since its founding.
According to Kakao on the 22nd, Chung Shina, the CEO of Kakao, will attend the 'Goldman Sachs Asia Leaders Conference' in Hong Kong from September 3 to 4. Industry analysts suggest that this unprecedented attendance of CEO Chung at an overseas investor relations (IR) event is due to significant changes ahead for the messenger platform KakaoTalk and the forthcoming collaboration outcomes with OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT.
CEO Chung is expected to share the company's financial status and future business plans, which were disclosed in a conference call for the second-quarter performance report earlier this year, during this Hong Kong IR event. A Kakao representative noted, "We are expanding our capital market-friendly moves" and said, "There will also be a Q&A session regarding the management status and new services."
In a conference call held on the 7th, CEO Chung stated, "We are adding an artificial intelligence (AI) service that operates on the basis of 'user relationships' to KakaoTalk." This service is said to function in an 'on-device' form, allowing AI to be implemented on devices without an internet connection, thereby enhancing security.
Kakao will also introduce a new AI product based on ChatGPT, developed through collaboration with OpenAI. The company plans to unveil more details about this new AI service at next month's annual developer conference, 'If Kakao'.
The 'tabs' section accessing key features in KakaoTalk will be completely revamped. CEO Chung remarked, "The first tab, 'Friends', is expected to transform from a simple friends list into a feed service for sharing daily life (exploring content via scrolling)." She also stated, "After the redesign, the updated profile feature will be improved, and at the bottom, there will be a space where users can consume and interact with a variety of relationship-based content in the form of a feed."
She further explained, "The third tab, which currently provides open chat (anonymous communication with unspecified individuals), aims to diversify the channels for content supply while building a studio where creators can easily produce content through short-form (short video)." She added, "Through a strategy to expand exclusive content and original content produced with the capabilities of the affiliated company, we will secure quantitatively and qualitatively rich content," indicating a goal to develop KakaoTalk into a relationship-based platform rather than just a means to consume content, preparing for future revenue.
CEO Chung also plans to attend a domestic institutional investor briefing hosted by Kiwoom Securities in Seoul on September 26.
Kakao recorded a consolidated operating profit of 185.9 billion won in the second quarter. This figure represents a 39% increase compared to the same period last year. Revenue was reported at 2.0283 trillion won, a 1% increase from the same period last year. During this period, both revenue and operating profit achieved their highest ever quarterly figures.