[Featured Stock] Krafton Plummets 12% Early Session Amid Earnings Decline

[Asia Economy Reporter Myung-hwan Lee] Krafton is plummeting sharply from the beginning of trading on the 11th due to the impact of last year's poor performance.

As of 9:20 AM, Krafton is trading at 261,500 KRW, down 11.95% (35,500 KRW) compared to the previous trading day.

The company's Q4 revenue and operating profit last year were 444 billion KRW and 43 billion KRW, respectively. Compared to the previous quarter, revenue decreased by 14.9% and operating profit by 78%, recording results significantly below market expectations.

The securities industry analyzed that the poor performance of Krafton's new mobile game released in November last year, 'New State Mobile,' was critical. New State's Q4 revenue last year was 18.2 billion KRW (daily revenue basis 360 million KRW), which was significantly lower than market expectations. Initially, the market expected New State's daily revenue to exceed 3 billion KRW.

Jung Ho-yoon, a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities, said, "Currently, a core fan base is forming mainly in the U.S. and other regions, and the company's strategy is to expand users and revenue through marketing after a large-scale update in Q2, but it is difficult to view this optimistically. The time to pay close attention again will be after the New State update is successfully implemented according to the company's plan and revenue growth is confirmed."

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