[Edaily Reporter KIM YOON-JEONG ] Yuanta Securities Korea assessed that Kakao(035720)recorded its highest-ever quarterly revenue and operating profit in the second quarter, driven by the growth of TalkBiz and the effects of its business restructuring. The firm projected that the company’s medium- to long-term growth potential will be further strengthened as its strategy to secure a leading position in the Agent AI market gains momentum. While maintaining its “Buy” investment rating, the firm lowered its target price to 62,000 won.

On the 7th, Lee Chang-young, an analyst at Yuanta Securities Korea, stated, “High profitability is expected to continue in the second half of the year due to the platform division entering a phase of structural growth and the effects of divesting non-core businesses.” He added, “We believe that efficient management of AI capital expenditures (CAPEX) and robust growth in the core business have offset the burden of AI investments, resulting in a significant improvement in earnings visibility.”
Kakao’s second-quarter consolidated revenue reached 2.0985 trillion won, a 9% increase year-over-year, while operating profit rose 36% to 277 billion won. The operating profit margin (OPM) stood at 13.2%, up 2.3 percentage points from the previous quarter and 2.6 percentage points from the same period last year. Net income attributable to shareholders fell 90% year-over-year to 16.3 billion won, reflecting a one-time loss from discontinued operations. Both consolidated revenue and operating profit reached all-time quarterly highs, exceeding market consensus.
In the Platform segment, advertising and subscription revenue reached 400 billion won, a 14% increase year-over-year. Business messaging revenue rose 20% driven by expanded marketing efforts, particularly in the financial sector, while TalkDA grew 28% due to increased user engagement with feed-based ads and the influx of new advertisers.
Commerce revenue rose 10% to 243 billion won. Transaction volume for the “Gift” service reached an all-time high, and transaction volume for self-purchases also increased by 39% year-over-year. The “Other Platform” segment grew 22% to 587 billion won, driven by strong performance in mobility and kakaopay.
In the Content segment, Story revenue fell 16% year-over-year to 211 billion won, impacted by a slowdown in the Japanese manga market. In contrast, music revenue rose 8% to 558 billion won, driven by major intellectual property (IP) concerts, the expansion of merchandise and licensing, and the impact of comebacks by groups such as aespa, NCT, and WISH. Media revenue also increased by 5% to 99 billion won, supported by a rise in the number of produced works.
Yuanta Securities Korea projected that AI services will be the key driver of corporate value growth in the medium to long term.
The analyst explained, “The company is pushing forward with a transition to a comprehensive ‘agent-based AI’ that spans from understanding conversational context to order placement and payment,” adding, “Starting with a partnership with Coupang Eats, the company plans to expand integration across key verticals such as commerce, reservations, and travel.”
The analyst continued, “Based on the establishment of the Play MCP ecosystem and the Language User Interface (LUI), the company aims to reach 10 million monthly active users (MAU) for its AI services within KakaoTalk by year-end,” adding, “By 2028, the share of AI-related revenue within TalkBiz is expected to expand to double digits, serving as the key driver for medium- to long-term valuation re-rating.”
Furthermore, the firm assessed, “The strategy of excluding entry into the B2B infrastructure layer—such as AI data centers and GPU cloud services, which require massive CAPEX and excessive equipment replacement cycles—and instead concentrating capabilities on the B2C service and model layers, where the company has strengths, is positive.”
Yuanta Securities Korea assessed that, despite the target price revision, valuation pressures have been significantly alleviated. Although the target price was lowered to reflect the market value of listed subsidiaries and the sale of subsidiaries, the firm noted that the price-to-earnings ratio (PER) for 2027—excluding one-time non-operating expenses such as losses from discontinued operations—stands at 20.4x, indicating that the stock has entered a normal valuation range.