'Wemade' Surpasses Even Kakao Games

Stock Price Surges Over 130% This Month, Entering Top 10 Market Cap Rankings
Security Maintenance Is Key to Sustaining In-Game Ecosystem

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] Wemade has surpassed a market capitalization (market cap) of 5 trillion won, overtaking Kakao Games as well. This is interpreted as investors flocking to the company as it leads the way in establishing a business model (BM) that differentiates it from other game companies.

As of 11:05 a.m. on the 27th, Wemade recorded 172,600 won, up 7.20% (11,600 won) compared to the previous day. It also rose 15.08% the day before. Wemade has surged more than 130% since October, ranking first in terms of increase among all stocks.

The market cap has also increased significantly. On the previous day alone, Wemade's market cap increased by about 700 billion won, reaching 5.3544 trillion won. Until the end of last year, Wemade's market cap ranking was only 106th, but with a steep upward trend, it entered the top 10 in the KOSDAQ market cap ranking for the first time on the 6th of this month. On the morning of this day, it rose to 5.7402 trillion won, surpassing Kakao Games to rank 5th in market cap.

The recent surge in Wemade is due to the news of a merger with Wemade Tree. Wemade Tree is a subsidiary of Wemade responsible for blockchain business, including the launch of the cryptocurrency ‘Wemix’. Wemade stated, "Through the merger, we plan to strengthen blockchain-based service capabilities and expand the Wemix platform business."

This attempt by Wemade is being received by investors as laying the foundation for a new BM. Recently, domestic game companies have faced criticism for releasing games that rely on extremely low probabilities. For example, NCSoft released the new game ‘Blade & Soul 2’ in August, but it was criticized for having a BM similar to the lineage-type that induces spending, and its stock price fell from the 700,000 won range to the 500,000 won range.

However, Wemade’s BM allows users to earn cash within the game. In Wemade’s flagship title ‘Mir4’, users can mine the in-game currency ‘Heukcheol’ and then exchange it for the token ‘Draco’, which can be converted into cash. It is known that consistent mining over a month can earn about 400,000 to 450,000 won.

However, experts point out that Wemade’s value will only be maintained if solid security is in place. If corporate users appear who mine through automated devices, the in-game ecosystem could collapse, causing users to leave. Wi Jeong-hyun, president of the Korea Game Society (professor of business administration at Chung-Ang University), explained, "Many domestic games have lost their value due to hacking," adding, "Since it is attracting attention as a new BM, it is important to maintain the in-game economic structure through security."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.