Media affiliates of KT Group have mixed feelings. While Seo Jae (CEO Park Hyun-jin), a regular e-book subscription service platform, is taking the lead in the market and cruising, music platforms KT Genie Music (CEO Seo In-wook) and KT ENA (CEO Kim Ho-sang) are on a downward spiral.
According to related industries on the 2nd, KT Millie's Seojae easily beat Yes24 and Kyobo Bookstore to account for more than 60 percent of the domestic subscription-type reading platform market. Based on its stable market share, KT Millie's Seojae recorded 20 billion won in sales and 3.7 billion won in operating profit in the first quarter of this year on a consolidated basis. The figures are up 18.9 percent and 29.6 percent year-on-year, respectively.
The securities industry predicts that KT Millie's Seojae could benefit from the recent leakage of personal information by Yes24. Hana Securities predicted KT Millie's Seojae sales and operating profit at 21.2 billion won and 4.1 billion won, respectively, in the second quarter of this year, up 19 percent and 10.8 percent year-on-year.
From the second half of this year, KT Millie's Seojae plans to expand its portfolio to the content area of story (web novel and webtoon). The strategy is to expand the types of reading to create a structure that can be consumed "separately and together" within a single subscription model to break down reading content boundaries and maximize subscription flexibility to secure Millie's unique competitiveness.
In May, the company said, "We will make strategic investments worth 20 billion won per year for the next three years. Through this, we will increase our content competitiveness and grow to 150 billion won by 2027, twice our 2024 sales."
KT Genie Music, on the other hand, ranked fourth in the monthly active usership (MAU) of domestic music streaming app released by WiseApp, an app retail analysis service, and Retail with 2.59 million users after YouTube Music, Melon, and Spotify as of June. It was lagging behind not only YouTube Music (10.44 million) and Melon (6.37 million) but also Spotify (3.89 million).
In addition, Kang Daniel, a Wanna One singer, is also involved in a lawsuit. KT Genie Music has brought Kang Daniel's concert to the forefront, saying that it will exert synergy in 2022 by taking charge of KT Group's performance business. However, the company is in a legal battle over the remaining costs as the concert's profits amounted to only about 1.5 billion won compared to 2.2 billion won, which was the size of the concert contract at the time.
In the case of KT ENA, "I Am Solo" in July 2021 and "Strange Lawyer Woo Young-woo" in June of the following year cruised successfully, but no additional box office hits have been released since then, continuing the deficit. According to KT SkyLife's audit report, KT ENA only had an operating loss of 38.5 billion won last year. After operating loss of 38.6 billion won in 2023, operating loss decreased by about 100 million won, but it continued to lose money for two consecutive years.
fun3503@chosunbiz.com
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