Kakao is accelerating the spin-off of the portal Daum.
According to the information technology (IT) industry on the 18th, Kakao has decided to practically complete the spin-off of the portal Daum, which was separated as a corporate independent company (CIC), this month and is currently obtaining the full agreement of its employees. Kakao plans to hold a board meeting in the first half of the year to decide on the spin-off agenda once it completes persuading its members, who are the biggest obstacle to the spin-off, and finalizes the detailed spin-off plans. If the spin-off concludes within the year, it will essentially be separated as a separate entity again after 11 years.
Kakao, which merged with Daum in 2014, established CIC in May 2023 to operate Daum in a form capable of independent decision-making. Daum has formed the two major pillars of the domestic portal industry alongside Naver and has led the market, but it has faced sluggishness in recent years. According to website traffic analysis site Internet Trend, as of the 16th, Daum's domestic search market share is 3.07%, significantly trailing behind Naver (60.34%) and Google (31.66%) in fourth place. Some observers suggest that Kakao, which has been continuously streamlining its non-core businesses, may even be considering selling Daum in the long term after the spin-off.
Kakao noted that restoring the competitiveness of Daum itself is the top priority, and the spin-off is merely a way to create an environment where it can conduct various experiments as an independent organization to strengthen its competitiveness. Chung Shina, the CEO, also denied the speculation of a sale, stating during a meeting with reporters after the shareholders' meeting in March, 'Right now, the focus is on creating a good company,' and 'We are not considering a sale at this point.'
CEO Chung explained at the time, 'I believe that for corporations to grow, people and structures need to be in place, and I judged that Daum currently has a structurally challenging framework to grow within Kakao,' adding, 'I thought we should create a management structure where services can grow well and allow for autonomous experimentation.'
In January, Kakao undertook a complete overhaul of the Daum application (app), including a logo change, for the first time in nine years. Following this, on the 30th of last month, it continued with a second overhaul that enhanced user convenience by providing news content through a curation chatbot and strengthening its short-form content service.