ConnectWave Merges Advertising Division with LinkPrice... "Expecting Growth and Synergy"

Connectwave, a specialized e-commerce company, announced on the 15th that it will integrate its subsidiary LinkPrice, a company specializing in keyword advertising and affiliate marketing, with the MakeShop advertising division to further strengthen its competitiveness in the online advertising market and pursue a strategy to become the industry leader.

LinkPrice recorded top-tier performance in the industry in 2023, with approximately KRW 33.5 billion in sales and about KRW 9 billion in operating profit. Through this integration with the MakeShop advertising division, which has solid sales and stable profitability, both sales and operating profit are expected to take a significant leap forward.

LinkPrice plans to focus on creating synergy with the MakeShop advertising division, an e-commerce specialized advertising agency, while actively investing in ad-tech to further enhance its competitiveness for becoming the number one in the related industry. To this end, it will expand its ad-tech technical workforce and promote business advancement using the generative AI ‘PLAi (Play)’, while also considering mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of various ad-tech companies.

LinkPrice operates one of the largest keyword advertising businesses in the industry and leads the affiliate marketing sector as the undisputed number one in Korea. Despite the overall slowdown in the e-commerce market growth and sluggish online advertising market last year, steady growth in affiliate marketing led to a 4.6% increase in sales and a 14.3% increase in operating profit compared to the previous year.

The MakeShop advertising division is an e-commerce specialized advertising agency handling portal ads, search ads, mobile ads, SNS ads, targeting ads, and video ads, solidifying its position in the e-commerce market. It is also an official partner of major advertising platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Google, Naver, and Kakao.

Lee Byungheon, CEO of LinkPrice, said, "Amid the challenging domestic online advertising market, this integration is expected to secure leadership in the advertising ecosystem and create value." He added, "We will especially accelerate ad-tech investment, synergy among affiliates, and business advancement through generative AI to meet market expectations."

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