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Kakao to revive Daum's independence with strategic spin-off

Published: 23 May. 2025, 19:12

Internet portal Daum's logo [DAUM]

Kakao will spin off its portal service Daum, 11 years after merging with the platform, in a bid to allow more autonomous management and reinvigorate the brand.

The tech giant said Thursday that its board approved the separation of Content CIC, which currently operates Daum, into a new wholly owned subsidiary tentatively named Daum Preparatory New Corp. (translated). The move marks the first time Daum will be structurally independent from Kakao since their merger in October 2014.

The new entity will take over Daum's core services, including email, online community spaces, search engine, news and shopping. Daum Preparatory New Corp. will initially operate these services under contract from Kakao, with plans to complete a full business transfer by the end of the year.

Once a dominant force in Korea’s internet portal era alongside Naver, Daum has seen its influence wane sharply in the mobile-first era.

The portal’s share in the domestic search engine market dropped from 12.48 percent in December 2015 to 6.07 percent in 2020 and further to 2.84 percent as of May this year, according to local analytics firm Internet Trend. Google and Microsoft’s Bing have overtaken Daum, while Naver continues to hold the top spot.

Kakao designated Daum as a company-in-company (CIC) in May 2023 and rolled out two major updates to the Daum app this year in a bid to revamp the service. Through the spin-off, Kakao aims to enable more experimentation and discover new growth drivers.

Kakao will spin off Daum [JOONGANG ILBO]

Yang Ju-il, head of Content CIC and newly appointed CEO of Daum Preparatory New Corp., said the spinoff would allow for faster and more flexible decision-making.

“We plan to focus on new experiments and challenges to give Daum a fresh opportunity to grow,” he said.

The new company plans to explore new business areas leveraging Daum’s existing assets, such as short-form video, media and online communities.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY JEONG YONG-HWAN [[email protected]]