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Kakao Q1 Profit Rises 5%, Sales Up 16% as Platform Business Expands
Kakao Corp. posted net profit of 226.8 billion won in the first quarter, up 13.2 percent from a year earlier, with operating profit jumping 66 percent to a quarterly record. The company highlighted strong platform division results and detailed plans to expand agentic commerce through its Kanana AI in the second half of 2026.
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South Korean internet tech giant Kakao Corp. reported record first-quarter operating profit and sales, driven by double-digit growth in its flagship platform business. 2 percent from a year earlier, Yonhap reported.
94 trillion won. 's Q1 operating profit and sales were the highest for any first quarter. 2 trillion won in sales in Q1, up 16 percent from a year earlier.
4 billion won, an increase of 5 percent from the previous year. Kakao Corp. expects upward momentum in its platform business to continue in Q2. It noted that contribution from its content business could be limited in Q2 due to increased marketing expenses.
During an earnings call, CEO Chung Shin-a said the company plans to scale-up its agentic commerce in the second half of 2026. "We are preparing with major vertical players, a proactive, end-to-end agent service that connects from search to payment," Chung said. Kakao has been integrating its homegrown AI agent Kanana with shopping functions inside Kakao Talk since April 2026.
"Users will be able to experience the early stage of Kakao's agent commerce before the next earnings release announcement," Chung added. Approximately 80 percent of users said they were satisfied with Kanana in Kakao Talk's answer quality. Kanana in Kakao Talk is an on-device AI service that provides autonomous services such as daily scheduling, conversation summarization, web searches and reservations.
Kakao Corp. 5, soon. Chung Shin-a said it is encouraging that the company made quantitative growth in the first quarter by strengthening core competitiveness.
