Kakao: brands it owns and its ownership tree
Kakao (KRX: 035720) is a publicly listed company headquartered in Jeju, South Korea that owns 6 consumer brands across 2 categories.[1]
Kakao is the South Korean internet group built around KakaoTalk, a messaging app with 49 million monthly users in a country of 52 million, and it monetises that position through advertising, gifting and commerce inside the app. Around it sit partly owned subsidiaries covering mobility, payments, banking, music streaming, webtoons and games, most of which Kakao holds well short of outright. Consolidated revenue reached a record 8.1 trillion won in 2025. Its web portal Daum, long the group's second pillar, was separated out as AXZ and left the group; it is absent from Kakao's February 2026 ownership chart.
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brands owned
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2
categories
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acquisitions recorded
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divestitures recorded
Company facts
- Legal name
- Kakao Corp.
- Type
- publicly listed company · see all publicly listed company owners
- Headquarters
- 🇰🇷 Jeju, South Korea
- Tickers
- KRX: 035720
- Website
- www.kakaocorp.com
- Last verified
- · 1 sources
Kakao in numbers
- Kakao owns 6 consumer brands tracked here across 2 top-level categories; the largest is internet & digital with 5 brands.[1]
- 1 of its brands originated outside South Korea.
Everything Kakao owns
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Full-screen interactive tree → · Download as infographic
Brand portfolio by category
Full portfolio, 6 brands, with sources → · Competitors by shared categories →
Minority stakes, joint ventures and licences
- Kakao Pay — minority stake 46.1%[1]
- Kakao Games — minority stake 37.6%[1]
- SM Entertainment — minority stake 41.5% since 2023[1]Kakao and its subsidiaries together hold 41.5 per cent of SM Entertainment, of which 21.6 per cent is held directly by Kakao Corp. The holding is below half but Kakao consolidates the company rather than accounting for it by the equity method.
Recent changes to this record
Frequently asked questions
What brands does Kakao own?
Kakao owns 6 consumer brands tracked here, including Melon, Kakao Map, KakaoTalk, piccoma, Kakao T and Kakao Friends.
Is Kakao a South Korean company?
Yes. Kakao is headquartered in Jeju, South Korea.
Who owns Kakao?
Kakao is a publicly listed company owned by its shareholders; it trades as 035720 on the KRX.
Sources (1) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] Kakao Company Presentation, February 2026 — Kakao Corp., Official document, published 1 February 2026; retrieved 28 September 2026.
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