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SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korean internet tech giant Kakao Corp. saw its net profit fall sharply in the second quarter, but posted the highest quarterly operating profit and sales, the company said Thursday.

Kakao's net profit for the April-June period was 18 billion won (US$12.6 million), down 89.5 percent from a year earlier, the company said in its regulatory filing.

Operating profit during the cited period was 277 billion won, up 49 percent from a year ago. Sales rose 3.5 percent to 2.09 trillion won.

The figures include earning results from Kakao Games, which was effectively spun out to Japan's LY Corp. in May.

The company's flagship platform division, which includes its ride-hailing service and the Kakao Pay mobile payment service, generated 1.23 trillion won in sales, up 17 percent from a year earlier.

Sales from its content business posted a slight 1 percent increase to 868.2 billion won.

Kakao said it plans to gradually introduce customers to an agentic artificial intelligence (AI) experience across shopping, reservations and other daily tasks, and materialize the service into the company's sustainable growth engine.

fairydust@yna.co.kr

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