[백브리핑AI] Kakao, shock win due to sluggish advertising and games… ‘Darkness’ ahead of compensation for ‘eating’ in 4th quarter

[인포스탁데일리=김영택 기자] Kakao recorded a ‘shock win’ in the third quarter of this year.

A collapse in the advertising market caused by the economic downturn and a drop in sales in the gaming sector had a direct hit on the company’s earnings.

Kakao recorded 1.85 trillion won in sales and 150.3 billion won in operating profit in the third quarter.

In particular, operating profit received a sluggish report card, down 11% compared to the same period the previous year.

This performance was analyzed to be a result of the sluggish performance of the content sector such as weblogs, melons and games.

In particular, game sales fell 36% year-on-year to KRW 296.1 billion, the lowest performance among business divisions.

This is because big mobile games like ‘Uma Musume’ and ‘Odin’ performed poorly.

Uma Musume users were dissatisfied with Kakao’s inexperienced game management method, and it was fiercely criticized, such as holding a vehicle protest.

The problem is that Kakao’s 4Q earnings are also expected to be dismal.

Kakao apologized to the public last month for the service disruption.

As a service used by the majority of people, Kakao has established and published basic countermeasures related to the Pangyo data center fire in order not to neglect its responsibilities.

We intend to review compensation for stakeholders including users and partners from different angles.

We are in a position where we have to consider compensation and related responsibilities as the fire at the SK data center is interrupting the service.

Kakao has formalized the service interruption period due to the disruption to 127 hours and 30 minutes.

Kakao is currently accepting user damage.

Accordingly, it is inevitable to reflect the cost of compensation for damages in the fourth quarter, and the estimated amount of compensation for damage from paid services is expected to be around KRW 40 billion.

Yang-oh Choi, head of the ISD Corporate Policy Research Institute, analyzed, “Due to the current situation, it is very likely that Kakao will delay the launch of new services for now.”

Reporter Kim Young-taek site0103@infostock.co.kr

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