Operator
"total_tokens": 15814, "prompt_tokens": 7820, "candidates_tokens": 7994 } Operator: I will now turn it over to Kakao.
Hello, I'm Jeffrey from Kakao IR. We'll now begin Kakao's 2025 fourth quarter and full-year earnings conference call.
Today, I'm joined by Shina Chung, the CEO, and Jaden Shin, the CFO. Please be reminded that the earning results are consolidated estimates under the K-IFRS basis and are subject to change upon the auditor's review.
Also, forward-looking estimates are based on assumptions, actual results may differ from figures included in today's presentation. Now, we will have a presentation from CEO Shina Chung.
Good morning. This is Shina, CEO of Kakao.
Over the past year, Kakao has focused on consolidating our group-wide capabilities around core businesses to ensure sustainable long-term growth. Through this process, we significantly streamlined our organizational structure, reducing the number of subsidiaries from 150 to 94 as of the end of the last year.
This year, while continuing our efforts for qualitative growth, we intend to shift our strategic gear towards the growth of AI and KakaoTalk, our core pillars, leveraging the energy we have built up over the past year. First, I would like to discuss AI.
While it is clear that AI presents a massive business opportunity for Kakao, it also brings uncertainties as we navigate an uncharted territory. Consequently, starting in 2025, Kakao began conducting various rapid trials and experiments, increasing our probability of success by learning from failures.
We initially piloted the studio structure, a purpose-oriented organization within our AI units. This lean and agile operation focused on clear objectives while effectively accelerated the launch of services and products.
Based on this, we determined that an organizational structure capable of validating service value through iterative trials is essential for the AI era. Therefore, as of February 1st, we expanded the studio model to the entire AI organization.
From this year, each studio aims to develop and deploy new AI features in 1-month cycles, established a high-velocity execution framework. ChatGPT for Kakao and Kanana in KakaoTalk, both launched last year, are results of the accelerated studio structure.
Regarding ChatGPT for Kakao, I mentioned in the previous earnings call that we secured 2 million users shortly after launch. That user base has now expanded to 8 million, creating new traffic patterns for searching and generating content that did not previously exist within KakaoTalk.
This year, we plan to build multiple touchpoints to ensure a more natural transition from the core messaging experience to ChatGPT for Kakao. Through this, we aim to secure a significant user base and discover high-utility AI use cases using Kakao's own agent, Kakao tools.
Simultaneously, for Kanana in KakaoTalk, we have been conducting CBTs for small user groups since last year and are seeing great potential in on-device AI. Kakao is a company that holds data where 50 million people's daily conversation, searches, mobility, and payment are connected in a single context.
This data asset is our core competitive advantage in implementing AI that is most closely integrated into daily life. On-device AI is the optimal way to provide the strongest protection for user privacy while creating new value from the precious data assets.
However, our biggest concern before the CBT was the barrier to entry as users must download the AI model to their local device. Contrary to our concerns, over 80% of invited users completed the model download, proving that the download process is not a major obstacle.
Furthermore, approximately 70% of current users continue to use the device, which is an overwhelmingly high retention rate for a new service. Our internal analysis shows that the key to this high retention is the AI's role in proactively initiating conversations based on the user's chat context.
To date, most global AI services have struggled to produce satisfying results with AI-initiated features, thus most interactions still begin with the user prompting the AI. In contrast, for Kanana, over 60% of interactions begin with an AI-initiated message, which effectively drives user lock-in.
We have confirmed that the AI's ability to understand user intent and initiate conversation is a powerful moat that only Kakao can build. Another insight from the CBT is that schedule reminders and briefing linked to AI-initiative messages showed the highest frequency of use.
Next, the most prominent user scenario was commerce. Since a clear business opportunity has been identified, our goal for the first half of the year is to more actively explore contexts where transaction can occur.
Based on this, we plan to strengthen user scenarios and validate monetization. In the first quarter, we plan to conclude the iOS-only CBT for Kanana and officially launch it both Android and iOS.
Although devices meeting the required specifications currently account for only half of all devices, we aim to gather a meaningful number of users post-launch by enhancing core features and expanding service access paths. While expanding user touchpoints, Kakao is also steadily accumulating research achievements in language models.
Last year, we unveiled Kanana MoE, a first in Korea. With 32 billion total parameters, it maintains LLM-level intelligence while actively only the 3 billion parameters necessary for inference, significantly improving computational efficiency.
We have successfully internalized a high-efficiency language model optimized for agentic AI that Kakao aims to implement. Additionally, we introduced our proprietary multi-model model, Kanana Omni, which currently holds top benchmark scores in its class in Korea.
On February 2nd, we created an orchestration benchmark dataset to evaluate the planning and execution capabilities of LLM. This is a unique asset held only by Kakao in Korea and was also accepted by ICLR 2026, one of the world's top three AI conferences.
As such, Kakao is focusing on developing models that balance cost and performance while supplementing investment-heavy LLMs through partnerships, steadily evolving an orchestration strategy that organically combines models and services. To showcase next-generation AI experiences on devices, we have agreed to begin full-scale global collaboration.
Today, I am pleased to announce for the first time the strategic partnership between Kakao and Google. As a starting point, we're beginning a collaboration with Google Android to further enhance our on-device AI services.
By working directly with the Android development team, we expect to maximize the value of data assets within the Kakao ecosystem. Furthermore, as the financial burden of AI infrastructure increases, Kakao is considering ways to strengthen our infrastructure in the most capital-efficient manner by optimizing various chip lineups beyond GPUs.
Given Kakao's expertise as the only company in Korea capable of effectively utilizing TPUs, we are in discussion with Google Cloud regarding the operation of a meaningful scale of TPU clouds. Lastly, we're beginning a collaboration for the upcoming AI Glass.
Kakao intends to form hypotheses on how user experiences can change when Kakao's services are integrated into various AI form factors, creating new AI usage experiences. Following our AI strategy, I would like to discuss Talkbiz, another core growth pillar.
Over the past year, KakaoTalk has surpassed service reorganization with the goal of evolving into a super-app. As a result, we have seen a qualitative shift in traffic.
The time spent on KakaoTalk, which has been stabilizing downward, saw a meaningful rebound and remained steady at around 25 minutes as of December. In particular, the AI services introduced last quarter are creating new user behaviors.
Based on our analysis of the change in user time spent over the past 2 months before and after using the services for users for ChatGPT for Kakao and Kanana in KakaoTalk, the average daily time spent on KakaoTalk increased by a combined total of approximately 4 minutes. This is a significant early achievement demonstrating that AI services are extending the user time spent within KakaoTalk.
Compared to past services, I believe this is one of the most meaningful cases in terms of expanding retention. Given the high contribution to retention time we are seeing, we believe the goal of increasing KakaoTalk user retention by 20% is fully achievable if we expand the AI user base this year.
Next, regarding our advertising business, the KakaoTalk reorganization is a major turning point that turned Talk display ads to a growth trajectory. The feed-type ads introduced in the feed tab are blending naturally into content, showing high efficiency in core metrics like clicks and conversions.
This has clearly improved advertisers' ROAS. Additionally, with the diversification of formats, demand from new industries is rapidly expanding.
With the influx of small and medium-sized commerce advertisers, we believe Kakao is establishing itself as an essential marketing platform. We view this not as a temporary effect, but as a structural shift driven by both new demands and improved efficiency.
Consequently, Talk display ad revenue recorded a clear turnaround with 18% year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter. Last year, our annual consolidated revenue surpassed 8 trillion Korean won for the first time, and operating profit also reached a record high of 732 billion Korean won.
Our annual operating margin reached 9%, a 3 percentage point improvement year-on-year, clearly reflecting the results of our structural improvements. Based on these achievements, we plan to fully shift our gears towards growth this year.
In the short term, we will prove our performance through visible earnings improvements while simultaneously delivering tangible results regarding Kakao's mid to long-term growth. We ask for your continued interest and support for Kakao throughout this year.
Next, Jaden, our CFO, will present the 2025 fourth quarter and full-year financial results.
Hello, this is Jaden, Kakao CFO. I will present the consolidated financial results for the fourth quarter and the full year.
In the fourth quarter, as our high-margin core business, Talkbiz, entered a full-fledged growth trajectory, we achieved record-high quarterly revenue, underpinned by solid growth across the entire platform sector, including pay and mobility. Accordingly, consolidated operating profit came in at 203 billion won, exceeding 200 billion won for two consecutive quarters, and operating profit margin expanded to 10%, which is a 5 percentage point improvement YoY.
We view this earnings improvement as particularly meaningful as it demonstrates that our realignment of core businesses centered on Talk is generating tangible results. To be specific, Kakao's standalone operating profit in the fourth quarter, comprising ads, commerce, and AI, was 128 billion won with an operating margin of 18%.
Excluding operating losses from the AI business, operating profit increased 9% YoY to 174 billion won with the margin expanding to 24%. Now turning to the top line.
Consolidated revenue for the fourth quarter was 2 trillion 133 billion won, up 9% YoY and 3% QoQ. Annual revenue for 2025 grew 3% YoY to 8 trillion 99 billion won.
Platform revenue in the fourth quarter was 1 trillion 223 billion won, growing 17% YoY and 16% QoQ. Within this, revenue for Talkbiz, Kakao's core business, increased 13% YoY and 17% QoQ to 627 billion won.
Breaking this down further, Talkbiz advertising and subscription revenue recorded 373 billion won, up 16% YoY and 15% QoQ. Of this, Talkbiz advertising revenue, excluding subscription, grew 18% YoY and 16% QoQ to 305 billion won.
Starting with business message, revenue continued its solid trend, growing 19% YoY despite the high base effect from 2024. Following the official launch of brand message in quarter four, the customer pool available for advertisers expanded and ad efficiency improved, leading to an increase in total message volume.
Consequently, we saw a full-scale inflow of advertisers from new sectors, such as finance. This allowed business message to record its highest ever revenue for three consecutive quarters.
For display ads, revenue grew 18% YoY. This was driven by the Talk revamp, which expanded ad inventory in slots where users discover content, as well as by improved user experience and advertiser efficiency.
Beyond simply expanding inventory, we established a distribution structure that brings external advertiser demand into Talk inventory through external DSP integration. This expanded advertiser coverage and optimized ad delivery, ensuring that the inventory expansion translated into actual revenue growth.
Moving on to commerce, quarter four combined GMV reached 3 trillion won for the first time on a quarterly basis, rising 12% YoY and 17% QoQ. For reference, annual combined commerce GMV grew 6% YoY to 10.6 trillion won.
Specifically, Talk Gift GMV grew 14% YoY, reflecting the deferred Chuseok holiday effect from the previous quarter, and maximized peak season performance through expanded year-end promotions. Notably, for Kakao Shopping Festa, our largest annual promotion held in October, we reinforced curation of popular brand items by category and personalized benefits, effectively driving new user inflow and purchase conversion.
As a result, the number of self-purchase users within Talk Gift grew 22% YoY and GMV increased 47%, driving overall growth. Commerce revenue recorded 253 billion won, up 8% YoY and 21% QoQ.
Revenue growth for commerce was more limited compared to GMV due to the impact of the expanded promotions mentioned earlier. However, we view this strategic marketing execution as an investment to broaden our user base and strengthen the foundation for future commerce growth.
Next, platform and other revenue recorded 524 billion won, up 30% YoY and 17% QoQ. Starting with mobility, revenue saw double-digit growth YoY, driven by top-line expansion in parking and quick services, adding to the stable taxi business.
As for pay, it sustained its solid revenue trajectory, backed by balanced growth across all sectors, including payment, finance, and platform services. Pay's operating profit also achieved a record quarterly high, showing a trend of improvement every quarter since its turnaround in quarter one.
Turning to the content business, quarter four revenue was 911 billion won, remaining flat YoY and decreasing 11% QoQ. First, story business revenue recorded 192 billion won, down 5% YoY and 9% QoQ.
Piccoma revenue decreased 6% YoY and 11% QoQ in yen, attributable to the market slowdown in the Japanese manga sector, coupled with a lack of new blockbuster titles. In this environment, over the past year, Piccoma focused on maximizing marketing efficiency rather than engaging in excessive spending competition.
This significantly improved profitability and, as a result, annual operating profit exceeded 10 billion yen for the first time. Moving to music, revenue rose 12% YoY, but dipped 7% QoQ to 525 billion won.
On a YoY basis, solid performance in merchandise and licensing continued, increasing the contribution from IP-based businesses. However, revenue declined QoQ as album sales slowed due to seasonal factors and the base effect from major artist activities concentrated in quarter three.
Finally, media revenue recorded 96 billion won. While it grew 30% YoY due to continued expansion of production revenue recognition following the previous quarter, it remained similar QoQ.
Now let's look at operating expenses. Quarter four operating expenses were 1 trillion 930 billion won, up 3% YoY and 4% QoQ.
Labor costs were flat YoY as we maintained a conservative hiring stance, but increased 6% QoQ to 497 billion won due to bonuses at subsidiaries and a rise in incidental labor costs, including social insurance. Marketing expenses recorded 116 billion won, up 13% YoY and 16% QoQ due to concentrated marketing activities by Piccoma and Kakao Pay in quarter four.
The ratio of marketing expenses to annual consolidated revenue was 4.8%, keeping our promise to stay within the 6% range made at the start of the year. As for revenue-linked expenses, they increased 18% YoY due to the base effect from the reclassification of annual album production costs to outsourcing fees in the same period last year.
On a QoQ basis, it increased 4% to 768 billion won due to changes in the music business revenue mix. The ratio of revenue-linked expenses to consolidated revenue was maintained at 36% for both quarter four and the full year, consistent with the previous quarter.
Outsourcing and infrastructure expenses decreased 13% YoY due to the base effect of the account reclassification last year and decreased 4% QoQ to 250 billion won, reflecting the base effect of strong album sales concentrated in quarter three. Amortization expenses decreased 17% YoY due to the base effect of one-off bad debt expenses reflected by Kakao Pay last year and decreased 2% QoQ to 204 billion won.
Consequently, quarter four consolidated operating profit was 203 billion won with an operating margin of 10%, and on an annual basis, it was 732 billion won with an operating margin of 9%. Moving on to non-operating items.
Quarter four non-operating loss totaled 243 billion won. We recognized impairment losses on goodwill of 128 billion won and impairment losses on intangible assets of 105 billion won, with most losses stemming from the content business sector.
Regarding corporate tax, the expense was 20 billion won in quarter four. While we recorded a net loss of 39 billion won, impacted by the recognition of 20 billion won in net income from discontinued operations due to the deconsolidation of Kakao Healthcare, net profit attributable to controlling interest improved by 268 billion won YoY to 43 billion won.
However, on an annual basis, driven by expanded operating profit and reduced goodwill impairment, we recorded a net profit of 526 billion won, achieving a turnaround YoY. Net profit attributable to controlling interest improved to 446 billion won to 501 billion won.
Finally, on CapEx. Quarter four CapEx was 195 billion won, increasing 87 billion won YoY and 11 billion won QoQ.
Annual CapEx totaled 616 billion won, an increase of 110 billion won YoY, driven by expanded investments in new tangible assets by subsidiaries.
Operator
This concludes the presentation of the fourth quarter and full-year earnings for 2025. We will now proceed to the Q&A session.
As the time is limited, we kindly ask you to limit your questions two per person. Now Q&A session will begin.
Please press star one, that is star and one, if you have any questions. Questions will be taken according to the order you have pressed the number star one.
For cancellation, please press star two, that is star and two on your phone. The first question will be provided by Eric Cha from Goldman Sachs.
Please go ahead with your question.
Eric Cha
Good morning. I have two questions for you today.
You have today announced your new partnership with Google. Can you also then give us an update as to what your current existing cooperation with OpenAI is ongoing?
Would there be any difference or change going forward or any cannibalization with the current as-is partnership with OpenAI? Second question relates to your strategy regarding the agentic AI.
Would like to know whether you are expanding your partnership with outside third-party stakeholders.
This is Shina, responding to the first and the second question. First, in terms of our partnership with Google, based on on-device approach, we're focusing on scaling up user experience from the device perspective and were testing Kakao's different service experience on new form factors as well.
From a mid-term perspective, we believe that in order to maximize our strength, we wish to build a collaborative framework generating synergies in specific areas where only Google is good at in order for us to identify and find AI-driven business opportunities. Now in terms of our collaboration with OpenAI, we can tell you that our partnership is solid as we continue to work together on B2C AI services based on ChatGPT.
Basically, that will help us leverage the world's biggest B2C user base. Also, after the rollout of ChatGPT for Kakao, we are focusing on service stabilization.
From this year onwards, we will further strengthen the connection between the conversation context of KakaoTalk and ChatGPT, and we will further reinforce collaboration with OpenAI as we go forward. As such, we will work with Google on device experience and with OpenAI on the domain of AI B2C, establishing a partnership structure without overlap.
Now, rather than doing everything on our own through such global collaboration, we believe that this strategy really helps to cover the entire AI layer, and at the same time, it's the best way for us to optimize direct investment. As we move forward, we will continuously internalize the lightweight LLM capabilities internally, which is key to Kakao's service competitiveness and focus on AI service that our user base can use in their daily lives.
At the same time, to go beyond the uncertainties of the AI age, we are going to bring tangible results meeting the expectations that people have on Kakao's AI, and we will nimbly respond to this coming age by flexibly making use of the off-platform external partnership. Responding to the second question on the external expansion of agentic AI system, now this year will be a key year for us in building the agentic AI ecosystem.
As I have mentioned last year as a CEO, this actually is one of my key tasks as well. By the end of the year, many partners will connect to Kakao's agentic AI platform through PlayMCP and Agent Builder by the end of the year.
Capitalizing on Kakao's strong context-based moat as the starting point, investors will be able to see the early shape of how the agentic commerce turns into actual services. As I've mentioned in my opening presentation, we are seeing active interaction between users and AI agents taking place inside the commerce domain from the Kanana in Talk beta test.
Now, based on this data, we are talking to leading domestic vertical commerce players. Actually, not only domestic, but global top-tier players have shown interest in joining the ecosystem as well.
Currently the discussions are ongoing, we believe that within the first half of the year, we will be able to onboard at least or actually more than three key players who could play a pivotal role in building the agentic AI ecosystem. These agent features will be rolled out sequentially through Kakao's AI services.
Currently, such AI service is working as a key customer touchpoint. This year, we are expecting to see a significant expansion of the user base with high velocity.
Also, this year will be an important year for us because we will be bringing together the AI service expansion and the agent feature usage. These two factors will come together in driving the service value as well as usability for AI services.
Operator
Next question, please. The following question will be presented by June Lee from Daishin Securities.
Please go ahead with your question.
Thank you for taking my question. I have two questions that I would like to ask.
Thank you very much for that update on your new business endeavors under AI services. Now I would like to know as to what the target or the guidances in terms of your top-line revenue and profit for 2026.
Another question that I have is with regards to your Talkbiz growth estimate going forward because there was an impact of rollback back in Q4. I'm just wondering whether you will be able to sustain the growth of your Talkbiz going forward.
Responding to your question on the guidance, in terms of the Talkbiz revenue, basically compared to what we had actually planned, we were able to achieve a double-digit growth earlier on in Q3, and in Q4, we were able to report a higher growth rate at 16%. Such steeper growth was driven by structural change that happened in the second half of the year, and we expect that this trend will continue into this year, contributing to consolidated basis operating profit enhancement.
Now, we will continue to make investments into AI within the scope that does not undermine profitability and that will help us retain investment efficiency. Kakao will focus on expanding the AI service user base and also at the same time implement the agentic AI, which I had just previously explained.
Now, through this strategy, this year will be the year for us to really build the foundation and basis for AI monetization and business, and we plan to generate meaningful revenue starting next year. Now, also with solid growth this year and as well as improvement in profit for Kakao Pay, contributions to the total consolidated basis operating profit we believe is going to continue to expand.
In terms of the content segment, marketing spend and business structure rationalization will take place in full consideration of the market situation and the market backdrop in order for us to manage a short-term stable profitability. For music and Piccoma, using the IPs, we will expand the derivative business in order to expand mid to longer-term growth engine.
All in all, this will be a year for Kakao entering into a growth phase in full swing. Start of revenue as well as profit improvement.
On this basis, we will be targeting above 10% growth in annual consolidated revenue and OP margin of 10% in 2026. In terms of our Talkbiz advertisement business going forward on the growth strategy, which is our key pillar of this year's growth, now if you take a look at business messaging, we are targeting a double-digit growth based on a ramp-up expansion of brand messaging, which was launched last year.
Now after the launch, we are seeing that advertisers are able to serve tailored communication to not only Talk Channel subscribers, but to their current customer base on whom the brands have their own customer data. Now these messages are more than just ads, but an effective tool that drives repurchases and that builds relationship with that consumer base.
Thanks to this change, we're quickly building best cases in terms of ad efficiency improvement, and more advertisers are adopting brand messaging. Last year, it actually became the biggest revenue model inside the Talkbiz ad, but still we think more than two times expansion is possible.
Now moving on to display ads, Q4 last year, on top of the ad inventory slot expansion and advertiser demand growth based on ad tech, basically it drove the Q4 DA growth and strategies for improving the advertisement efficiency. This virtual cycle will drive performance and be a key engine for us this year as well.
On top of this, we expect that with the official launch of AI Moment, which actually is a advertiser support model, we believe that this will be able to provide analytics on the AI-related marketing performance and recommend improvement to the advertisers, and this we expect will drive a quality-driven growth. Also, from the second half of the year, the commerce ad inventory slot, which was only sold based upon the impression basis, will shift and will go through certain changes and adopt an open structure, adopting a bidding process that is on the performance ad.
We believe that this will significantly help the monetization of the commerce slots inside the Talk and will really be able to further increase the contribution made by the advertisement revenue. Also, with the release of AI services, people or the users are going to become more familiar with its use inside the KakaoTalk platform, and we believe that this will bring us a significant mid to longer-term growth potential and expansion into the search domain.
Combined by a solid growth of business messaging as well as display ad being our key pillars behind growth, our Talkbiz advertisement in Q3 of last year actually regained the growth rate of double-digit, and our objective is to, on a per annum basis, sustain that trend in 2026. At the same time, we are going to expand our portfolio from commerce to search ad domain, and we will implement various different initiatives to achieve that mid to long-term growth.
Due to the time constraint, we will take the final question.
Operator
The last question will be presented by Minju Kang from Bernstein. Please go ahead with your question.
Minjoo Kang
This is Kang Min-ju from Bernstein. Two questions.
First is based upon your current business position, would like to understand what your outlook for Q1 is. Also, can you provide some more color on where you stand in terms of ROE, because last year you communicated your ROE-related objective.
Where is your ROE at this point, and what is your outlook?
Now, responding to your question on our first quarter outlook, we believe that Q1 is going to be our first milestone where we start to see tangible results come through based upon the efforts that we've put in last year. More specifically, if you look at our platform business, Talkbiz ad, pay, and mobility, across the board, we are expecting a double-digit top-line growth supported by margin improvement as well.
In terms of Talkbiz ad, through marketing efficiencies, we are seeing advertisers' budget concentrate mainly around Kakao, and we are seeing a much stronger growth momentum. On the content side, rather than focusing on the short-term earnings or performance, we are focusing on realigning the IP lineup and also making the business structure more efficient so that we may regain mid to long-term competitive resilience.
Now on the cost side, as we start to ramp up and prepare for a full-fledged growth, certain fixed cost items like depreciation and infrastructure-related expenses, there may be a time lag between the expense and the actual outcome that we are able to gain. In Q1, the profit on a temporary basis may show some variability, but that will still be within the annual guidance that we have previously communicated.
I can assure you that all of the executions are ongoing as planned towards achieving the annual target. Starting the second quarter, we believe that improvement in profitability and structural growth, underpinned by platforms mainly, is going to start to emerge.
Every quarter, we will see that the burden on fixed cost will alleviate quite rapidly, and we will be able to see a recovery trajectory on a quarterly profit basis. Moving on to the question on ROE and where we stand, last year around this time, we communicated that we would ensure financial stability through business structure efficiency and also priority-based resource allocation so that we could mitigate in stages the uncertainties that we see on the non-operating side, thereby improving the ROE.
Looking back on quarterly profit for FY 2025, starting the second quarter, we started gaining more visibility in operating profit improvement, and in Q3, we were able to achieve record-high quarterly OP. The improvement that we've seen on operating profit in Q2 and Q3 is due to the across-the-board cost efficiencies that the company was able to achieve, as well as outperformance in our music business top line, which outperformed the estimates that we had.
At the same time, in Q4, the reason why we were able to do more than 200 billion in operating profit is because of the recovery of the top line from our advertisement business, which actually has the highest level of profitability following the Talk revamp. All in all, annual operating profit for 2025 hence actually posted a 48% year-on-year growth, reporting 732 billion Korean won.
At the same time, the biggest factor that impacted our net income line item was actually the goodwill impairment, and we are almost at the end of that cycle. We were able to significantly reduce the volatility that we've seen on the non-operating accounts.
As a result, 2025 net income attributable to controlling interest actually improved or went up by 445.6 billion year-over-year, and ROE improved 3.9 percentage points year-on-year, reporting 4.4%. Now, for this year, we believe that a structural and secular growth will start to feed in from our advertisement business, which is our core pillar, and at the same time, in AI side, we will lay the foundation for monetization and capitalization of our capabilities.
Supported by these factors, starting next year, we will be able to downsize on the size of the loss that is incurred. In terms of the subsidiaries that we have, we are improving on the governance and also making the cost structure more efficient, through which we wish to secure new growth engine.
Supported by all of these factors, we think that for this year, we will be able to sustain a profit uptrend. On top of this, we will be making different tools under shareholder return, such as dividend payout and share buyback, so that we can make our capital structure much more efficient.
By having a structure where we could actually drive growth at the controlling interest level as well as making our capital structure much more efficient, we will be able to achieve our mid-term ROE target that is commensurate with what our peers are showing. Through these efforts, we are committed to achieving these improvements.
This brings us to the end of the fourth quarter and full-year 2025 earnings conference call of Kakao. Thank you, investors, for joining.
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