[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] On June 5, KB Securities maintained a "Buy" rating on Kakao Corp., raising its target price from KRW 49,000 to KRW 55,000 — a 12.2% increase — citing high expectations for the launch of a Korean-style super AI agent platform in partnership with OpenAI in the second half of 2025. Kakao shares closed at KRW 41,600 the previous day.
Kakao is set to unveil three new AI services by the second half of this year. On May 8, the company began closed beta testing (CBT) for “KanaNa,” an AI mate service featuring two agents — “Kana” and “Nana” — that understand user conversations and provide personalized responses.
KB Securities researcher Sunhwa Lee commented, “While KakaoTalk conversations previously couldn’t be used to train AI models due to privacy concerns, KanaNa collects conversational data with user consent and leverages it to improve the AI agents’ performance. As users continue engaging, the AI mate deepens its understanding and enhances personalization — a key advantage for future agent platform development.”
Lee also highlighted Kakao’s strategy to increase user engagement by adding a “Discover” section to the KakaoTalk app. This new feature aims to drive traffic and content consumption by offering short-form videos and feeds. The company plans to diversify its ad lineup in this section, with revenue potential expected to double compared to current ad placements. Once stabilized, advertising revenue is projected to return to double-digit growth.
“Kakao not only operates KakaoTalk, which is used by virtually the entire Korean population, but also provides a broad ecosystem of everyday services across commerce, fintech, content, mobility, and healthcare,” Lee noted. “By combining these lifestyle-centric services with OpenAI’s advanced AI model, we expect Kakao to launch a Korean-style super AI agent platform with strong reasoning and autonomy capabilities.”
Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
