Kakao Considers Spinning Off Portal 'Daum' as an Independent In-House Company

Kakao is considering separating the portal Daum into an independent company within the organization (CIC). This is to seek a new leap forward by creating an organization that can focus solely on the portal, as its position in the domestic portal market dominated by Naver and Google has been shrinking.

On the 3rd, Kakao announced that it is reviewing a plan to separate Daum into a separate CIC. The information has been shared with some executives, and a meeting will soon be arranged to gather opinions from all employees.

In the domestic search engine market, Naver holds about 60% market share. Google follows with about 30%. Daum accounts for only a single-digit 5%. Although services have expanded from email to search, cafes, and news, traffic has gradually declined, leading to evaluations that its position is not what it used to be.

After merging with Kakao in 2014 to seek synergy, there have been no significant achievements. Since company-wide efforts have been focused mainly on KakaoTalk, a plan has been devised to create an organization that can concentrate on the portal Daum and formulate business strategies.

A Kakao official said, "We are reviewing this as a way to prepare a foundation for a new leap forward," and added, "We are not considering a sale."

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