[CEO Analysis 18] Kakao's Shina Chung Opens 'Season 2' with AI

ceonews · 2026.01.14 11:25:12

Kakao

[CEONEWS = CEO/Publisher Lee Jae-hoon] It is January 2026, and Kakao's clock is ticking fast once again. Shina Chung (Jeong Shin-a), who stepped in as a "relief pitcher" amidst the greatest crisis since the company's founding, is shedding her "manager" suit to cast a bold move as an "innovator" to mark her second anniversary in office. With her term set to expire this coming March, CEO Chung has successfully completed high-intensity restructuring over the past two years and is now preparing for Kakao's next 15 years, equipped with the dual wings of "AI (Artificial Intelligence)" and "Global." CEONEWS provides an in-depth analysis of CEO Shina Chung's achievements over the last two years and outlines the vision and challenges of the "Kakao Season 2" she envisions.

■ From 142 to 94 Affiliates: Successful High-Intensity Diet

CEO Shina Chung's past two years can be summarized as "shedding fat" and "strengthening fundamentals." At the time of her inauguration, Kakao was facing its worst crisis since its inception, plagued by criticisms of being an "octopus-like enterprise" due to indiscriminate affiliate expansion, the arrest of founder Kim Beom-su (Chairman of the CA Consultative Council) over alleged stock manipulation of SM Entertainment, and accounting fraud controversies surrounding Kakao Mobility. Upon taking office, Chung vowed to "restore Kakao's essence" and heralded a high-intensity overhaul.

According to our analysis, CEO Chung's promise was not empty words. The number of Kakao affiliates, which stood at 142 when she took office as Head of CA Consultative Council Business in September 2023, dropped to 132 upon her appointment as CEO in March 2024, and was significantly reduced to 94 by the end of 2025. In about two years, she reorganized 48 companies, amounting to 30% of all affiliates. Non-core affiliates such as Wyatt (operator of 'Kakao Hairshop'), Sena Technology, and Kross Pictures were sold or liquidated, and the 'Content CIC' operating the portal platform 'Daum' was spun off. In a letter to shareholders last October, Chung also revealed plans to further reduce the number to around 80 in the mid-to-long term.

This improvement in corporate constitution led to immediate financial results. In the second quarter of 2025, Kakao recorded revenue of 2.0283 trillion KRW and an operating profit of 185.9 billion KRW, achieving a record high for the quarter with a 39% increase compared to the previous year. The third quarter saw even more remarkable results. With revenue of 2.0866 trillion KRW and an operating profit of 208 billion KRW—a 59% surge year-on-year—Kakao entered the "200 Billion Club" for quarterly operating profit for the first time since its founding. This was the result of solid growth in Talk Biz combined with cost efficiencies from affiliate restructuring.

An industry insider analyzed, "The fact that CEO Chung quickly settled the chaotic group atmosphere and achieved a financial turnaround through a dual strategy of organizing non-core businesses and growing Talk Biz is the biggest positive signal for her reappointment."

■ Transitioning from 'Managerial CEO' to 'Growth CEO'

Kakao

Having proven her leadership through financial performance, CEO Chung is now looking to the future. She has declared 2026 as the first year to end the "time of accumulation" and shift toward "directional growth." In her New Year's address, Chung stated, "2026 is the year Kakao's new 15 years begin," and declared a shift in growth gears, urging employees to "not settle for past success equations but use AI as a 'creative multiplier' to amplify individual capabilities and ideas."

At the center of this is undoubtedly 'AI.' In a recent meeting with new recruits, Chung emphasized, "We must forget past success methods (Unlearning) and become 'AI Natives' who utilize AI like a colleague." This is interpreted as a will to implant a new DNA suitable for the AI era, rather than resting on the laurels of the KakaoTalk success myth.

Kakao's AI strategy is "Human-centric AI." While competitors like Naver focus on Large Language Model (LLM) infrastructure competition, Kakao has chosen a pragmatic route of applying AI to KakaoTalk, a powerful platform used daily by 50 million citizens. Chung emphasized, "AI will evolve beyond a tool that simply executes commands into an 'Agentic AI' that first understands the user's intent and context to connect the next action."

'ChatGPT for Kakao,' launched last October through collaboration with OpenAI, achieved a milestone of surpassing 2 million users within 10 days of release. It was praised for increasing accessibility across various age groups by allowing the use of ChatGPT directly within the KakaoTalk chat tab without installing a separate app. Furthermore, the on-device AI 'Kanana,' based on a proprietary small Large Language Model (sLLM), is emerging as a key weapon. 'Kanana in KakaoTalk,' scheduled for official launch in February-March, acts as an 'AI Mate' that grasps conversation context to manage schedules and recommend information, and is cited as the key to evolving KakaoTalk from a simple messenger into an 'AI Platform.'

The second pillar of growth is the 'Global Fandom OS.' The plan is to combine Kakao's 'full-stack assets'—including super IPs, platforms, and on/offline interfaces—to build a global fandom ecosystem where fans worldwide communicate and create value. Lee Jin-soo, former CEO of Kakao Entertainment who pioneered the global webtoon market with the "Wait or Pay" model, recently joined as the executive in charge of future strategy at the CA Consultative Council, adding weight to Chung's global fandom strategy.

■ The Bitter Cup of 'National Team AI' Elimination… Proving 'Tech Leadership' is the Task

However, the path ahead for CEO Chung is not entirely rosy. While the urgent fires have been extinguished through two years of restructuring, the failure to demonstrate a clear "technological advantage" in the future growth engine of AI is a painful point.

In fact, Kakao suffered a blow to its pride last year by being eliminated from the "Proprietary AI Foundation Model" project competition organized by the Ministry of Science and ICT. This contrasts sharply with Naver, which proudly listed its name as a candidate for the national AI representative with 'HyperCLOVA X.' This has raised market concerns that Kakao lacks competitiveness in proprietary foundation models. Although Kakao advocates a 'service-centric' strategy, critics point out that the absence of source technology could increase external dependency in the long run, hurting profitability.

In response, Kakao has recently accelerated efforts to prove its technological prowess by unveiling the Korean hybrid multi-modal language model 'Kanana-v-4b-hybrid' and releasing the next-generation language model 'Kanana-2' as open source. However, whether AI services including 'Kanana' can settle as a profitable Business Model (BM) remains an unknown.

The massive reorganization of KakaoTalk implemented last September is another hurdle to overcome. The update, which changed the friends list to a feed type and placed short-form content at the forefront, faced fierce user backlash and eventually led to a rollback in December. Although CEO Chung attempted to quell the situation through a shareholder letter stating, "We are deeply mindful of the concerns raised by shareholders," recovering trust in the "national messenger" is expected to take time.

■ 'Shina Chung Era' Phase 2: Beyond Stability to Innovation

Kakao

CEO Shina Chung has demonstrated excellent capabilities as a 'managerial CEO' during her term. By accomplishing the difficult tasks of slimming down affiliates and improving performance, she has secured both the justification and practical benefits for reappointment. The industry is weighing the possibility of her reappointment heavily, given the need for continuity in AI strategy and the potential for prolonged legal risks due to the prosecution's appeal against Founder Kim Beom-su's first-trial acquittal. According to securities consensus, Kakao's annual operating profit is projected to reach 885.1 billion KRW in 2026 and exceed 1 trillion KRW in 2027.

However, the upcoming 'Shina Chung Phase 2' following the shareholder meeting in March will be placed on a completely different testing ground. It is now time for 'offense,' not 'defense.' For Kakao to avoid falling behind in the massive wave of AI and to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with global big tech companies, Chung must break the mold of a 'financial expert' and show the aspect of a 'technology visionary.'

In 2026, the business world's attention is focused on whether CEO Shina Chung can once again demonstrate the potential of the 'national platform' by adding the new sharpness of AI to the familiar weapon of KakaoTalk. Whether 'Kanana' will become Kakao's new golden egg or remain just another challenge lies in her hands.

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