[Edaily Reporter YU JIN-HEE ] Wise birds Inc.(273060)has successfully turned its business around, posting its best-ever half-year results in the first half of this year since the company’s founding. Wise birds Inc. announced on the 7th that its consolidated operating profit for the first half of this year reached 5.8 billion won, a 125.4% increase compared to the same period last year. This figure represents 76.2% of last year’s annual operating profit, achieved in just half a year.

Consolidated revenue for the first half of the year reached 24.5 billion won, a 25.2% increase compared to the same period last year. This figure represents 53.9% of last year’s annual revenue (45.5 billion won).

Profitability has also improved significantly. The operating profit margin rose by 10.4 percentage points (p) year-over-year to 23.5%, and net income reached 2.21128 billion won, marking a return to profitability compared to the same period last year (a net loss of 2.2 billion won).

Second-quarter results also demonstrated steep growth. Second-quarter revenue and operating profit stood at 12.7 billion won and 2.9 billion won, respectively, up 14.2% and 49.1% year-over-year. The operating profit margin remained in the 20% range for two consecutive quarters, at 24.6% in the first quarter and 22.5% in the second quarter.

With this, Wise birds Inc. has firmly established a trend of profitability for four consecutive half-years since successfully turning a profit in the second half of 2024. The company has traditionally shown a seasonal pattern where earnings growth is concentrated in the second half of the year rather than the first.

Choi Ho-jun, CEO of Wise birds Inc., explained, “Even now that we have entered the second half of the year, our steep growth momentum continues, and we are confident that we will set a new record for our best-ever performance this year.” He added, “The upward trend in half-year operating profit is being viewed by the market as a sign of structural improvements in profitability.”

At the heart of this strong performance is the growth of the Technology Division, led by the artificial intelligence (AI) advertising platform “Nest Ad Manager.” The Technology Division’s first-half revenue reached 1,253,570,000 won, a 135.9% surge compared to the same period last year. In the second quarter, the division achieved an operating profit in the 80 million won range, successfully returning to profitability for the first time in four years since the second quarter of 2022.

Nest Ad Manager’s net revenue in June increased by 100% compared to January. Sixteen major vertical platforms—including Viber, SmartScore, Daum, Saramin, Blind, Daily Shot, HANATOUR SERVICE, Lotte ON, Danawa, and Enuri.com—have adopted the platform.

CEO Choi emphasized, “Media companies can operate AI-based advertising businesses simply by installing a software development kit (SDK), without the need for separate infrastructure,” adding, “This revenue-sharing structure, in which increased advertising revenue for media companies directly translates into revenue for Wise Birds Inc., is a high-profit model similar to that of AppLovin, a company listed on the NASDAQ.”

In the second half of the year, the company will fully deploy its creative AI solution, “Ad-Visor,” as its second growth engine. Ad-Visor, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, has reduced content production time by 97%—from 3 hours to 5 minutes—through its “AI Resizing” feature, which automatically generates 40 different formats across 10 media outlets from a single file. It has also demonstrated improved performance by reducing planning and production times based on client data by more than 50%.

Wise birds Inc. is also implementing an aggressive shareholder return policy in line with its earnings growth. Last May, the company decided to repurchase 2 billion won worth of its own shares—a first in its history—and subsequently cancel 75% (1.5 billion won) of them; it also carried out a 5-for-1 stock consolidation to stabilize the stock price.

A Wise birds Inc. official stated, “Sharing the fruits of our growth with shareholders is at the core of responsible management,” adding, “We plan to make our shareholder return policy a regular practice in line with our continued earnings growth.”