Kakao's founder, Kim Beom Su, is leaving the company's board as its chairman. He has quit, and his resignation was announced on Monday, March 14.
According to The Korea Herald, while the executive has already forwarded his resignation letter, his departure will still have to be approved by the board. The members will be convening on March 29 for the upcoming shareholders' meeting, and the decision will also be announced there.
It was shared that Kim is leaving his post in Kakao to explore bigger business opportunities overseas and move past the bounds of mobile-centered platform businesses. The move is part of the company's plans for global expansion as Kakao is reorganizing its strategy for the next 10 years.
Moreover, as Kim Beom Su steps down, he will be resuming his role as Kakao's Future Initiative Center's head. Prior to his resignation, he has been the board's chair since 2015.
Based on the announcement, the Kakao founder will start his expansion exploration in Japan. He already has extensive business experience in this region so this will be the start. For starters, Kim will broaden the services of Piccoma, Kakao's Japanese webtoon platform, where he is also serving as its director since 2017.
"Beyond Korea is Kakao's own mission and strong demand from Korean society to go beyond the starting point of Korea and pioneer a new land called the overseas market," Kim said in a message to Kakao's employees that was also published as a press release on March 14.
He added, "I hope that we can make a wonderful new voyage together so that we can realize our dream of becoming a company and wish to join the journey of Kakao to create a strong foothold in the international market, challenging the global IT giants."
Meanwhile, with the change, Kakao Entertainment and Kakao Games will start realigning their businesses based on the new Kakao's "Beyond Korea" slogan. It was mentioned that these will mainly provide fresh web content and games that the global audience will like. Under the company's new CEO, Kakao is also expected to dive into other business ventures such as the metaverse.


Oil Prices Rise as U.S.-Iran Talks Keep Geopolitical Risks in Focus
Trump Reports $1.4 Billion in Crypto Income as Digital Assets Become Top Wealth Source
SoftBank’s LY Corp, Bain Raise Kakaku.com Bid to ¥670 Billion, Intensifying Takeover Battle
Central Banks Eye Gold, Reduce Dollar Exposure as AI Adoption Accelerates: OMFIF Survey
Chip Stocks Rally as Samsung and SK Hynix’s $1.3 Trillion Investment Plan Boosts AI Optimism
Trump Administration to Launch Voluntary AI Standards for Frontier Models
US Jobs Report Preview: June Payroll Growth Seen Slowing as Fed Rate Decision Looms
Gold Price Holds Above $4,000 as Fed Rate Hike Expectations and U.S. Jobs Data Weigh on Market
Super Micro Employees Detained in Taiwan AI Server Export Investigation
NATO Albania Summit Faces Uncertainty as Trump, Defense Spending Concerns Loom
UN Chief Urges Nations to Close $100 Million UNRWA Funding Gap
Morgan Stanley Names BAE Systems Top European Defence Stock Despite Lower Price Target
Meta Stock Jumps as AI Cloud Expansion Challenges AWS, Microsoft, and Google
UK House Prices Hold Steady in June as Annual Growth Misses Forecasts
Asian Currencies Stay Under Pressure as Dollar Holds Near 13-Month High Ahead of U.S. Jobs Report
South Korean Stocks Tumble as AI Chip Selloff Hits Asian Markets 



