April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Kakao will accelerate expanding into new businesses in the second half, said Meritz Securities on Aug. 11, maintaining a “buy” recommendation and raising the target price to 130,000 won (US$113.29) from 120,000 won.

Its advertising business has begun to surge in earnest with strong mobile revenue, and the upturn will be further boosted by the official launch of new ad platform KakaoMoment in the latter half, said analyst Kim Dong-heui.

The game division did not grow as major blockbusters spun off from “Lineage” heightened competition in the second quarter but will begin to rebound as the newly released “Onmyoji for Kakao” is a hit, said the analyst. 

The platform based on its messenger application KakaoTalk is evolving fast to include a range of services from payment to banking, added Kim. 

By Hwang You-mee (glamazon@heraldcorp.com)