Meta Platforms (hereafter Meta) Korea Corporation, known as Facebook Korea, reported a revenue of 738 million won last year. Although it operates popular social networking services (SNS) such as Instagram, Facebook, and Threads in Korea and earned advertising profits amounting to 1 trillion won, most of its revenue was sent to the Meta Island Corporation.
According to the audit report released by Facebook Korea on the 2nd for the fiscal year 2024, the company recorded a revenue of 73.79635 billion won and an operating profit of 22.26078 billion won last year. This represents increases of 13.3% and 48.9%, respectively, compared to the previous year. The revenue sources for Facebook Korea are divided into two categories: advertising resale revenue and service revenue from Facebook and Instagram. The advertising resale section refers to the process by which Facebook Korea purchases advertising inventory from the Meta Group and resells it to domestic advertisers.
The revenue generated by Facebook Korea through domestic advertising sales amounts to 954.5 billion won. However, the cost of advertising purchases paid to the Meta Island Corporation is 905.5 billion won, leaving only 49 billion won as resale revenue. This is equivalent to about 5.1% of the total advertising sales. The low revenue also results in low corporate taxes. Last year, Facebook Korea paid a corporate tax of 5.4 billion won, which is an increase of 6.6% from the previous year.
Meanwhile, in the domestic information technology (IT) industry, there have been continuous claims that not only Meta but also global big tech companies like Google and Netflix have been underreporting their revenues to engage in tax evasion. Jeon Sung-min, a professor at Gachon University, noted during a seminar on strategies to manage tax evasion by global big tech, that based on Facebook Korea's audit reports from 2021 to 2023, the estimated revenue over the three-year period could be between 7.93 trillion won and 15.51 trillion won. He said that during this period, corporate taxes should have been paid in the range of 613.8 billion won to a maximum of 1.2 trillion won.