Kakao Pay has once again posted record quarterly results, driven by balanced growth across its payments, financial services, and platform businesses.

The company announced on Tuesday that second-quarter net profit came in at ₩49.6 billion (approximately $34.7 million), up 251% from the same period last year. That surpasses the previous record of ₩34.7 billion set in the first quarter, marking a new high just one quarter later.

Revenue and operating profit also hit fresh quarterly records. Second-quarter revenue rose 40.6% year-over-year to ₩335.1 billion (approximately $234.4 million), while operating profit jumped 528% to ₩58.6 billion (approximately $41.0 million). Kakao Pay said all three business segments — payments, financial services, and platform — posted double-digit growth for the third consecutive quarter, driving the company’s best-ever performance.

By segment, the payments business showed the most notable momentum. Monthly active users (MAU) for offline payments surpassed 6 million, up 21% year-over-year, while cumulative quarterly transaction volume reached 150 million transactions. Online payments also saw external merchant sales grow 22% compared to the same period last year.

In the financial services segment, subsidiary Kakao Pay Securities delivered strong results that lifted overall performance. The brokerage posted cumulative operating profit of ₩63.1 billion (approximately $44.1 million) for the first half of the year, surpassing its full-year 2024 operating profit of ₩42.8 billion in just six months — a 407.2% increase year-over-year.

Second-quarter operating profit alone reached ₩39.5 billion (approximately $27.6 million), up 347.4% from ₩8.8 billion in the same period last year and 67.9% higher than the first quarter’s ₩23.6 billion.

The earnings improvement was driven by growth in investor assets and trading customers. As of end of the second quarter, total custody assets rose 279% year-over-year, with stock and pension assets up 391%. Net investor fund inflows into domestic and global equity markets reached ₩4.8 trillion (approximately $3.4 billion).

The conversion rate of Kakao Pay users into active stock traders also exceeded 30%, up 20 percentage points from the same period last year. The increase in custody assets has translated into expanded stock trading activity, improving profitability centered on brokerage commission income.

CategoryQ2 ResultsYoY ChangeNet Profit₩49.6 billion (approximately $34.7 million)+251%Revenue₩335.1 billion (approximately $234.4 million)+40.6%Operating Profit₩58.6 billion (approximately $41.0 million)+528%

Note: Kakao Pay Q2 consolidated key results (Source: Kakao Pay)

Kakao Pay has been expanding beyond its simple-payment platform into financial services including securities, insurance, and lending. More recently, the company has rapidly acquired investment service users through its brokerage subsidiary, with synergies between the payment platform and financial businesses increasingly materializing.

Market observers are focusing on the fact that this quarter’s results reflect a growing share of higher-margin financial businesses rather than simply higher transaction volumes. The shift away from a payments-centric revenue structure toward more stable income streams such as brokerage commissions is seen as improving the quality of earnings.