Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
Kakao CEO secures 2nd term, sets 10% growth target on AI push
Kakao CEO Chung Shin-a speaks during the company’s annual shareholders' meeting at its headquarters on Jeju Island, Wednesday. Courtesy of Kakao
By Lee Gyu-lee
Kakao is doubling down on artificial intelligence (AI) as its core growth engine, with CEO Chung Shin-a securing a renewed mandate through March 2028 and setting an ambitious revenue growth target of over 10 percent this year.
During the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting at its headquarters on Jeju Island Wednesday, Chung was voted to serve another two-year term as Kakao’s chief. Her renewed leadership comes as the company accelerates major restructuring efforts while pivoting toward AI-led growth centered on its flagship messenger platform, KakaoTalk.
“Kakao has set a target of achieving more than 10 percent year-over-year annual revenue growth and a 10 percent operating profit margin by 2026,” the CEO said.
“This year will mark a strategic turning point for Kakao Group to deliver growth worthy of a growth stock, and as CEO, I will focus on continuous short‑term improvements while ensuring that the company’s growth potential translates into tangible performance.”
The company has been streamlining its business portfolio, cutting the number of affiliates from 147 to 94 as of the end of last year. Recently, it sold the majority of its stake in Kakao Healthcare to CHA Biomedical Group, handing over management rights, and has begun a sale process for AXZ, which operates the web portal Daum.
Kakao also announced Wednesday that it will sell part of its stake in gaming unit Kakao Games to LY Corp., the Japanese operator of Line and Yahoo! Japan, making LY the largest shareholder and leaving Kakao as the second-largest.
Screenshots of ChatGPT for Kakao / Courtesy of Kakao
Chung explained that the company has tightened its corporate structure to ensure sustainable mid- to long-term growth.
“This year, we will move beyond structural reorganization and concentrate on sound growth driven by KakaoTalk and AI,” she said.
At the heart of Kakao’s strategy is agentic AI, designed to proactively assist users.
“Kakao’s agentic AI connects specialized agents so that tasks flow naturally, resolving problems along the user’s journey. We’re building services where KakaoTalk interactions continue naturally, and AI understands and supports that flow,” Chung said.
The CEO noted that its AI service, ChatGPT for Kakao, has grown from 2 million users around its launch in October to 8 million as of February, highlighting that KakaoTalk’s average daily user time rebounded in the second half of last year for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company plans to expand ChatGPT for Kakao and another in-app AI service, Kanana in KakaoTalk, to deepen engagement.
“By the end of this year, we plan to connect a wide range of external partners to Kakao’s AI ecosystem through PlayMCP (a model context protocol platform) and AI Agent Builder, and in doing so, we aim to showcase the first differentiated iteration of our agentic AI, built on Kakao’s strength in conversational context as its starting point.”