Kakao Corp. on Thursday reported its first-quarter net profit of 67.7 billion won (US$49.7 million), up 711.6 percent from a year earlier. The company said in a regulatory filing that it posted 120.3 billion won in operating profit for the quarter, compared with 62.6 billion won a year ago. Revenue rose 22.5 percent to 1.98 trillion won. The earnings fell short of market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 95.1 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency. Source: Yonhap News Agency