After a series of negative and regulatory antitrust investigations, Brian Kim, South Korea's richest man and founder of the Internet giant Kakao Group, announced that he will resign as chairman and explore business opportunities in overseas markets.
(Source: Kakao official website)
According to the announcement, the personnel changes to Kakao's board of directors will be subject to approval by the general meeting of shareholders on March 29. Although Kim Bum-so resigned as chairman, he will continue to play a vital role in the company's operations. It is reported that in the company's development outline for the next ten years proposed today, the company's mission is divided into two directions: "Beyond Korea" and "Beyond Mobile", and Kim Fan-so will continue to run The Kakao "Future Initiative Center" to focus on the company's overseas expansion.
Explosive growth kicked to the regulatory "iron plate"
After gaining a foothold in the Internet era, Kakao has expanded into many fields such as Internet finance, e-commerce, gaming and travel. In the past two years, Kakao's game, banking and payment companies have completed listings, and the follow-up travel and manga platform Piccoma also has IPO plans.
The effects of the internet in accumulating traffic and wealth are also clearly revealed in this story, with the self-made Kim Fan-soo skyrocketing in value and surpassing Samsung Prince Lee Jae-yong to become South Korea's richest man last June. According to Bloomberg's real-time rich list, even after so many recent changes, Kim Fan-so is still the richest man in South Korea with a value of $8.96 billion, and lee Jae-yong, who is in second place, is worth $7.55 billion.
However, it was not long after Kim Fan-so ushered in the highlight moment of his life that he was in constant trouble, until today announced the transformation.
The first to be seen is antitrust issues, with South Korean regulators criticizing the "octopus" company for threatening local small retail stores, and the company announced in September that it would invest 300 billion won (about 1.54 billion yuan) to help small retailers and consider shutting down a series of businesses that compete directly with it, such as flower delivery.
Then, shortly after Kakao Pay went public in November, company executives were revealed to have sold off about 90 billion won at a high in December. This incident not only led to the resignation of Liu Yongjun, who had just been appointed as the next CEO, but also hit investor confidence hard.
(Kakao Pay share price daily chart, source: TradingView)
The controversy over executives " cutting leeks " has not yet subsided, and civil society has reported that Kim Fan-so avoided taxes of nearly $740 million when he acquired the portal Daum in 2014, and although the company has a negative tone, it has not avoided another wave of stock price decline. Today, Kim's wealth has fallen nearly $6 billion from its peak.
But you still have to compete with Korean companies
In Monday's announcement, Kim Said "Breaking through Korea" is not only the company's own task, but also a requirement of Korean society to open up more overseas markets. Now is the time to embark on a new journey to create a great company, not just an international IT company.
As the first step in the international strategy, the company chose Japan as its base camp for international expansion, and the manga subscription service Piccoma will also be the first step in the strategic landing, and a series of subsequent businesses of the company will also be coordinated to break through overseas.
Not surprisingly, the move will also intensify Kakao's rivalry with another South Korean internet giant, Naver. At the end of last year, Naver announced that it would cooperate with SoftBank to open up the Japanese market, backed by the advantages of cultural output, and Naver also shouted out the goal of achieving 50% of the e-commerce and search engine market share in 2025 and 2027, respectively.
Coincidentally, Naver founder Li Haizhen also resigned as chairman five years ago to focus on overseas market expansion, and the current official position is the group's global chief investment officer.