Kakao Entertainment

Executive Summary

Kakao Entertainment is a massive South Korean media business that owns every step of the process from creating stories to selling them. It holds a very strong spot in the markets for online comics, music selling, and making movies or TV shows. The company uses its own system to turn written stories into on screen content through its popular apps, Melon and Kakao Page, to make money from its creative characters and stories in countries all over the world. Its financial results are strong, as the business earned $1.5 billion in yearly sales and $80 million in total profit after getting large cash investments from the public funds of Saudi Arabia and Singapore. A major strength is its huge collection of owned stories and its ownership of Japan’s most popular comic app, Kakao Piccoma. Even with these problems and a home market that has few new customers left to find, this initial public offering of stock marks a major test for the value of the Korean pop culture trend. This stock listing is one of the most important media events in Asia and will show if digital media businesses can keep growing.