SEOUL, Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea’s dominant mobile messenger app, said Thursday its net loss widened in the fourth quarter from a year earlier due to an increase in non-operating costs.

The company said in a regulatory filing it posted a net loss of 1.66 trillion won (US$1.24 billion) in the last three months of 2023, compared with 486 billion won a year ago.

Operating profit came to 189.2 billion won in the October-December period, up 109 percent from a year earlier and sales rose 23 percent on-year to hit a quarterly high of 2.17 trillion won.

For the whole of 2023, Kakao’s operating profit decreased 10.9 percent on-year to 501.9 billion won, while revenue gained 14.2 percent to reach an all-time high of 8.1 trillion won.

The company posted a net loss of 1.5 trillion won last year, shifting from a net profit of 1.07 trillion won in 2022.

Kakao said its fourth quarter net loss widened despite strong sales due to an increase in costs unrelated to business.

Sales of Kakao’s flagship platfo
rm business grew 17.1 percent on-year to 1.1 trillion won in the fourth quarter thanks to increased profitability from its mobile messenger, KakaoTalk.

Sales from Kakao’s content business also jumped 30 percent on-year to 1.05 trillion won in the same period driven by a 117 percent increase in revenue from its music division.

Source: Yonhap News Agency