Kakao Corp.
Leadership History
3 leaders · 2022 to present
Shina Chung is the CEO of Kakao, in the role since 2024. The first chief executive was Hong Eun-taek, from 2022.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shina Chung | Chief Executive Officer | 2024 | Present | 2 |
| Hong Eun-taek | Chief Executive Officer | 2022 | 2024 | 2 |
| Namkoong Whon | Co-Chief Executive Officer | 2022 | 2022 | < 1 |
Kakao Corp. is one of South Korea's two largest internet companies, alongside Naver. Its registered headquarters is in Jeju City and most operations are in Pangyo, Seongnam. KakaoTalk is the core product, and the group includes listed affiliates KakaoBank, Kakao Pay, Kakao Games, and SM Entertainment, plus Kakao Entertainment, Kakao Mobility, and Piccoma. In FY2025 Kakao generated ~$5.75 billion (KRW 8.099 trillion) in revenue, 53% from Platform and 47% from Content. The company is headquartered in Jeju City, South Korea.
Kakao reports two segments. Platform (~$3.07 billion (KRW 4.318 trillion), 53% of FY2025 revenue) includes Talk Biz, which sells Bizboard display ads, business message channels, gifting commissions, and emoticon subscriptions inside KakaoTalk; Portal Biz (Daum); and 'Platform Others' such as Kakao Mobility and Kakao Pay. Content (~$2.68 billion (KRW 3.781 trillion), 47%) includes Kakao Games, music (Melon and SM Entertainment), story (Piccoma and Kakao Webtoon), and media production. KakaoTalk keeps acquisition costs low because new services can be surfaced to tens of millions of existing users, while high-margin Talk Biz advertising carries most of the group's profit. By Q2 2026 Platform had grown to 59% of revenue.
Chief Executive Officer
2024 – Present
2 years (current)
Formed the CA council to coordinate affiliates, cut the number of group companies, focused on Talk Biz and AI, partnered with OpenAI, and proposed the 2026 Kakao AI / Kakao X split.
Kakao posted record FY2025 revenue and operating profit under her leadership. She is slated to lead Kakao AI after the split.
Chief Executive Officer
2022 – 2024
2 years
Hong was appointed as sole CEO to aggressively manage the massive public and regulatory fallout following the catastrophic October 2022 data center fire that paralyzed South Korea.
He leads the company's severe internal restructuring efforts, attempting to repair Kakao's deeply damaged reputation regarding platform stability and monopolistic practices.
Co-Chief Executive Officer
2022 – 2022
0 years
Namkoong abruptly resigned as Co-CEO after only seven months, taking direct public responsibility for the massive data center outage that disabled the KakaoTalk messaging app.
Prior to his brief tenure as CEO, he aggressively expanded Kakao's highly lucrative gaming division, establishing the company as a major publisher in the South Korean mobile market.
Kakao's challenges are a slow-growing home market, investor distrust, and governance risk. Its shares hit a 52-week low of KRW 32,250 in June 2026 despite record earnings, and the stock fell 7.49% on the day the split plan was announced. Founder Kim Beom-su was acquitted at first instance in October 2025 of manipulating SM Entertainment shares, but prosecutors appealed and again sought a 15-year sentence in September 2026, with the appeal verdict scheduled for November 2026. The September 2025 KakaoTalk redesign drew user backlash, and content revenue fell 5% in FY2025.
Shina Chung was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Kakao Corp. in March 2024. A former management consultant at Boston Consulting Group and CEO of Kakao Ventures (where she successfully backed dozens of breakout tech startups), Chung is the first female CEO of Kakao, leading its corporate reform and AI transition.
Shina Chung centralized group governance under the CA Council, reorganized executive leadership, introduced rigorous ethical compliance oversight, divested non-core assets, consolidated redundant AI divisions, and unveiled the Kanana AI ecosystem.
Hong Eun-taek served as CEO following the 2022 data center fire, leading comprehensive disaster recovery overhauls, building the Ansan Data Center, and executing the landmark acquisition of SM Entertainment.
Co-CEOs Mason Yeo and Mason Joh led Kakao through a revenue explosion, quadrupling group revenues, launching Talk Bizboards, and orchestrating the multi-billion dollar IPOs of Kakao Games, KakaoBank, and KakaoPay.
Kim Beom-soo (Brian Kim) founded Kakao in 2010. A serial entrepreneur who previously co-founded Hangame (which merged with Naver/NHN), Kim created KakaoTalk and built South Korea's mobile internet economy, signing the Giving Pledge in 2021 to donate more than half his multi-billion-dollar fortune to society.
Appointed CEO at age 35, Jimmy Rim was the youngest CEO of a top Korean company, driving the $1.6 billion acquisition of music streaming leader LOEN Entertainment (Melon) and establishing Kakao's mobile content empire.
Sirgoo Lee served as co-CEO from 2011 to 2015, navigating early KakaoTalk growth and executing the landmark 2014 reverse merger with Daum Communications to list Kakao publicly on the Korean stock exchange.
Established in late 2023 and chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Kim So-young, the independent Compliance and Trust Committee exercises external oversight over corporate ethics, executive conduct, and governance transparency across all Kakao subsidiaries.
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