South Korean tech giant Kakao Corp. said Thursday its net profit soared over eightfold in the first quarter from a year earlier on overall growth of its major businesses. Its net profit came to 67.7 billion won (US$49.7 million) in the January-March period, up 711.6 percent from 8.3 billion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing. Its operating profit jumped 92.2 percent on-year to 120.3 billion won, and sales rose 22.5 percent to 1.98 trillion won. Kakao said its major businesses delivered strong overall performance in the first quarter. Its mainstay platform business posted 954.8 billion won in sales, up 13 percent from a year earlier. In detail, sales of its advertisement and e-commerce unit increased 8 percent to 522.1 billion won, and the combined revenue from its ride-hailing affiliate Kakao Mobility Corp. and online payment affiliate Kakao Pay Corp. advanced 24 percent to 348 billion won. Sales from Kakao's content business also climbed 33 percent on-year to 1.03 trillion won, mai nly thanks to the acquisition of K-pop powerhouse SM Entertainment Co. last year. The Korean company said it is also working to release various services based on artificial intelligence in the future. Last week, the company announced it has decided to acquire AI technologies developed by its affiliate Kakao Brain Corp., including a large language model and an image generating AI model Karlo, by June. Source: Yonhap News Agency