[Click eStock] Kakao Expected to Launch Korean-Style Super Agent Platform... Target Price Up

Target Price Raised by 12.2% Compared to Previous Estimate

On June 5, KB Securities announced that it expects Kakao to launch a Korean-style super agent platform within this year, and accordingly raised its target price from 49,000 won to 55,000 won. The investment opinion remains 'Buy'.

Lee Sunhwa, a researcher at KB Securities, stated, "We have raised our operating profit estimates for 2025 and 2026 by 5.8% and 4.9%, respectively. The main reasons for the target price increase are these upward revisions and a decrease in the cost of equity (COE) from 7.78% to 7.61%." She added, "Kakao plans to launch a Korean-style super agent platform in the second half of the year in collaboration with OpenAI. Within Kakao's ecosystem, this is expected to enable the creation of a Korean-style super AI agent platform that can automatically execute complex queries with a single user command by leveraging OpenAI's high-performance AI models."

On May 8, Kakao began a closed beta test (CBT) of its AI mate 'Kanana' and is preparing for an official launch in the second half of the year. Lee explained, "Previously, Kakao's weakness was that conversations in KakaoTalk could not be used to train AI models due to privacy concerns. However, Kanana collects conversation data with user consent and uses it to train the AI mate. As more conversations accumulate, the AI mate's understanding of users increases, enabling more advanced personalized services. This will be beneficial for developing future AI agent platforms."

Kakao has also announced a major overhaul of 'KakaoTalk'. The company plans to introduce a 'Discovery' section in the third tab to increase floating traffic and content consumption, thereby expanding user engagement. Lee commented, "By providing short-form content and feeds in the Discovery tab and expanding the lineup of various ad formats, the goal is to generate more than double the revenue compared to existing placements. After the Discovery service is established in the fourth quarter, advertising revenue growth is expected to recover to double digits."

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