Kakao Entertainment seeks restructuring, closer ties with Piccoma

South Korea's Kakao Entertainment Corp., a unit of mobile platform giant Kakao Corp., is seeking renewed growth through corporate restructuring and closer ties with its global webtoon platform operator Kakao Piccoma.

In a town hall meeting with employees on Friday, Kakao Entertainment’s two new co-chief executives – Kisu Kweon and Joseph Chang – said they will reorganize the firm’s corporate structure to strengthen music intellectual properties (IPs), drama and movie production, and webtoon-related businesses.

Unveiling their business strategies, the co-CEOs who assumed their posts on Thursday said they would establish a team dedicated to the music IP business.

The new team, to be led by co-CEO Chang, will be responsible for handling music and artists' IPs.

He said he will introduce artificial intelligence technology to the company’s music platform Melon and strengthen its music distribution channels, including expansion of overseas music business operations.

To enhance the competitiveness of its media business, Kakao Entertainment plans to separate the video business, which is responsible for drama and movie production and management, into a company-in-company (CIC) entity.

CLOSER COOPERATION WITH PICCOMA

The company said it will strengthen cooperation with Kakao Piccoma, which runs webtoon and web novel platforms in Japan and France, to secure webtoon IPs globally.

Kakao Piccoma launched Piccoma in Japan in 2016, providing webtoons and online manga from Japan, South Korea, China, the US and other countries through its app and website. Kakao Piccoma launched Piccoma France in March 2022.

In Japan, Piccoma is the country’s top online webtoon and manga subscription service provider.

Kakao Entertainment has so far focused on increasing its size through mergers and acquisitions. However, it will now pursue more efficient and sustainable organic growth, the co-CEOs said, while unveiling the firm's new business slogan, “Content beyond content.”

Before assuming the co-CEO role, Kweon was the company’s chief operating officer and head of the firm’s music content business.

Before joining Kakao Entertainment, he served as chief financial officer at Daum Communications.

Chang, the other co-CEO, was previously Kakao Entertainment’s global strategy officer.

Before joining the company in 2021, he was the CEO of Sony Music Entertainment Korea and co-CEO of Sony Music Entertainment’s Asia Hub.

Write to Ju-Hyun Lee at deep@hankyung.com


In-Soo Nam edited this article.