Kakao founder Kim Beom-su resigns as council chair

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Kakao founder Kim Beom-su resigns as council chair

Published: 13 Mar. 2025, 17:38 Updated: 13 Mar. 2025, 19:05

LEE JAE-LIM
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Kakao founder Kim Beom-su answers questions from press before entering the Seoul Southern District Court in western Seoul on Nov. 15, 2024. [NEWS1]

Kakao founder Kim Beom-su is stepping down as co-chair of the company’s corporate governance committee, the company announced Thursday.

Kim has been diagnosed with early-stage bladder cancer and resigned from the Corporate Alignment council in order to focus on his treatment, Kakao said in a statement. He will continue to head the company's Future Initiative Center.

Kakao CEO Chung Shin-a will continue as the sole chair of the Corporate Alignment council, which includes the executives of company affiliates such as Kakao Mobility, Kakao Pay, Kakao Piccoma, Kakao Healthcare, Kakao Games and Kakao Entertainment.

Kim has been standing trial on charges of stock manipulation during the takeover of K-pop agency SM Entertainment since July 2024. He was detained and released on bail in October but has not returned to management since then.

“This decision aims to facilitate faster decision-making and execution amid rapidly changing domestic and global business environments,” Kakao said in a statement.

The changeup comes as Kakao prepares to spin off its portal business in response to its continued loss of domestic market share to dominant competitors like Naver and Google.

The split will be finalized by June after board approval.

“The goal is to establish the portal business as a fully independent entity, ensuring autonomy while providing an environment for experimentation,” the company said. “By adopting a fast and independent decision-making structure, the company aims to enhance service competitiveness.”

The decision comes two years after portal site Daum separated from its parent company as a semi-independent business unit, officially referred to as a company-in-company in Korea.

Daum’s search engine market share retracted to 3.86 percent in 2024 from 11.74 percent in 2015, according to Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation. Naver and Google occupied the largest shares, accounting for 52.32 and 33.9 percent, respectively, in 2024.

Some view the spinoff as part of a management restructuring effort, as prior attempts to revitalize the portal business have failed to yield significant improvement.

Revenue for Kakao’s portal business slipped 4 percent to 332 billion won ($228 million) in 2024 from the previous year.

Chung said that the company’s primary goal was AI and that “any business that is evaluated to lack consistency with the KakaoTalk app or AI will be categorized as a noncore asset” on a conference call last year.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]