South Korean entertainment, mass media, and publishing company
Kakao Entertainment Corp.
|
Native name
| 株式會社 카카오엔터테인먼트
|
---|
Company type
| Private
subsidiary
|
---|
Industry
| |
---|
Predecessor
| (as separate companies)
|
---|
Founded
| March 2, 2021
; 3 years ago
(
2021-03-02
)
[1]
|
---|
Headquarters
| South Korea
|
---|
Key people
| Joseph Chang(CEO) Gisu Kwon(CEO)
|
---|
Products
| |
---|
Services
| |
---|
Owner
| - Kakao
(63.50%)
- Podo Asia B.V. (15.33%)
- Joy Lee (0.96%)
- Others (20.21%)
|
---|
Parent
| Kakao
|
---|
Divisions
| |
---|
Subsidiaries
| see list
|
---|
Website
| KakaoEnt.com
|
---|
Kakao Entertainment Corp.
(
Korean
:
株式會社 카카오엔터테인먼트
; stylized as
kakao ENTERTAINMENT
) , is a South Korean entertainment, mass media, and publishing company founded in 2021. A subsidiary of the Internet company
Kakao
, it was established subsequent to the merger of the latter's two subsidiaries
KakaoPage
and
Kakao M
.
[2]
[3]
[4]
History
[
edit
]
KakaoPage Corp.
[
edit
]
Podotree Co, Ltd.
was founded on July 20, 2010, as a subsidiary of Kakao, and launched KakaoPage three years later. On August 1, 2018, the company changed its corporate name to
KakaoPage Corp.
Kakao M
[
edit
]
Seoul Records, Inc.
was founded in October 1978 by
Young Bin Min
[
ko
]
, the owner of local educational company
YBM Group
[
ko
]
(formerly Sisa English). In 2005, the company was acquired by
SK Telecom
and relaunched as
LOEN Entertainment, Inc.
three years later, before being sold to Star Invest Holdings (a subsidiary of
Affinity Equity Partners
).
In January 2016, it was taken over by Kakao and renamed again as
Kakao M Corp.
in December 2017.
In October 2020, the company expanded in
Asia
by launching a Thailand-based subsidiary called
Kakao M Asia (Private) Co., Ltd.
(currently
Kakao Entertainment Asia Co., Ltd.
).
[5]
Merger as Kakao Entertainment (2021?present)
[
edit
]
In December 2020, KakaoPage Corp. proposed a merger with Kakao M Corp. as a unified company.
[6]
It was seen as an action by their parent company against US-based
Google
’s new policy for its app market place users, which would've affected Kakao M, which
KakaoTV
platform was starting to become popular in South Korea.
Both companies announced the plans and timeline for their merger, as well as the proposed name for the unified company
Kakao Entertainment Corp
on January 25, 2021.
[7]
Under the plans, KakaoPage Corp. is the surviving entity.
The merger was completed on March 1, and Kakao Entertainment was formally founded a day later.
On July 15, it was announced that Kakao Entertainment and
Melon Company
would be merging, with the merger expected to be complete in September 2021.
[8]
On September 17, Kakao Entertainment announced that
Play M Entertainment
and Cre.ker Entertainment would be merging in the future.
[9]
On November 12, it was announced that the company's new corporate name would be
IST Entertainment
, which took effect on November 1.
[10]
Divisions
[
edit
]
Page Company
[
edit
]
Headed by co-CEO Joy Lee, the Kakao Entertainment's Page Company is in charge of the company's web fiction publishing and web development business. It is situated in
Pangyo
,
Seongnam
in
Gyeonggi Province
.
M Company
[
edit
]
Headed by co-CEO
Stephan Kim
[
ko
]
, the Kakao Entertainment's M Company is in charge of the company's entertainment and mass media business. Its headquarters is in
Teheran-ro
,
Gangnam-gu
in
Seoul
.
Subsidiaries
[
edit
]
Under the Page Company
[
edit
]
- AdPage
[a]
- Daon Creative
- KW Books
- Kiwi Vine
- RS Media
- Radish Media
- Samyang C&C
- Soundist Entertainment
- Tapas Media
- Yeondam
Under the M Company
[
edit
]
Entertainment companies
[
edit
]
Talent companies
[
edit
]
- Awesome ENT
- BH Entertainment
- Bluedot Entertainment
- GRAYGO
- High Up Entertainment
- J.Wide Company
- King Kong by Starship
- Management SOOP
- Moonlight Film
- Ready Entertainment
- Studio K11O
- VAST Entertainment & Media
Production companies
[
edit
]
Assets
[
edit
]
Buildings
[
edit
]
- Jungsuck Building (Seoul) - headquarters of the Kakao Entertainment M Company
- The Kakao Entertainment M Company also owns a building at Samseong-dong in Seoul, where the headquarters of IST Entertainment and Flex M are located.
Internet properties
[
edit
]
Locations
[
edit
]
- Kakao Entertainment Page Company: Twosun World Building 8/F, 221, Pangyoyeok-ro,
Bundang-gu
,
Seongnam-si
,
Gyeonggi-do
, South Korea
[1]
- Kakao Entertainment M Company: Jungsuck Building, 17,
Teheran-ro
103-gil,
Gangnam-gu
,
Seoul
, South Korea
[1]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"Kakao Entertainment"
. Kakao Entertainment Corp.
Archived
from the original on May 7, 2021
. Retrieved
May 1,
2021
.
- ^
Song, Kyoung-son (March 4, 2021).
"Kakao M and Kakao Page merged into Kakao Entertainment"
.
Korea JoongAng Daily
.
Archived
from the original on May 7, 2021
. Retrieved
May 1,
2021
.
- ^
Park, Sae-jin (January 25, 2021).
"Kakao units merged into entertainment company targeting global market"
.
Aju Business Daily
.
Archived
from the original on April 26, 2021
. Retrieved
May 1,
2021
.
- ^
Leesa-Nguansuk, Suchit (January 26, 2021).
"South Korea's Kakao affiliates to merge"
.
Bangkok Post
.
Archived
from the original on August 5, 2023
. Retrieved
May 1,
2021
.
- ^
"Kakao Entertainment Asia Co., Ltd"
. Match Link Asia.
Archived
from the original on August 18, 2021
. Retrieved
August 22,
2021
.
- ^
Kang, Doo-soon; Oh, Dae-seok; Kang, Woo-seok; Kang, Young-woon; Cho, Jeehyun (December 3, 2020).
"Kakao Page close to merging with Kakao M before IPO"
.
Maeil Business News Korea
.
Archived
from the original on April 28, 2021
. Retrieved
May 1,
2021
.
- ^
"Launch of KAKAO ENTERTAINMENT through strategic merger of Kakao Page and Kakao M"
.
KakaoPage
Corp.
(Press release).
Archived
from the original on April 28, 2021
. Retrieved
May 1,
2021
– via PR Newswire.
- ^
Jo, Ji-young (July 15, 2021).
"[公式] 카카오엔터, 音樂 플랫폼 멜론 품는다..9월 合倂"
[[Official] Kakao Entertainment embraces music platform Melon..September merger].
Sports Chosun
(in Korean).
Archived
from the original on July 15, 2021
. Retrieved
July 15,
2021
– via
Naver
.
- ^
Kwak, Hyeon-su (September 17, 2021).
"플레이엠·크래커 엔터 統合…에이핑크·더보이즈 한 食口 된다"
[PlayM and Creker Enter integration… Apink and The Boyz become one family].
YTN
(in Korean).
Archived
from the original on February 25, 2022
. Retrieved
September 17,
2021
– via
Naver
.
- ^
Kim, Ye-ji (November 12, 2021).
에이핑크 '플레이엠'·더보이즈 '크래커', IST로 統合
[Apink's 'PlayM' and The Boyz's 'Cracker' merged into IST].
Newsis
(in Korean).
Archived
from the original on November 12, 2021
. Retrieved
November 12,
2021
– via
Naver
.
- ^
"
About Us
"
.
1theK
.
Kakao Entertainment
. Retrieved
May 12,
2024
.
- ^
"Kakao Entertainment sets a new global standard with the launch of 'KAKAO WEBTOON'
"
.
PR Newswire
.
Archived
from the original on June 2, 2021
. Retrieved
July 9,
2021
– via
Yahoo! Finance
.
- ^
Frater, Patrick (December 16, 2021).
"Kakao Entertainment Buys Wuxiaworld Online Fiction Platform"
.
Variety
. PMC.
Archived
from the original on January 11, 2022
. Retrieved
January 10,
2022
.
External links
[
edit
]
|
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Web assets
| | |
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Subsidiaries
| |
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People
| |
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Other
| |
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