 Naver and Kakao are expected to see their fortunes move in opposite directions, according to Samsung Securities. A study that looked at the company's market valuations judged that Naver is on the rise due to the focus it is putting on “mobile-only”, and is expected to lead to a 20% growth annually. Naver is currently seeing its mobile strategy lead to higher sales, which added to the introduction of Naver Pay and its popular video-based app, Snow, is putting the company in a strong position. Meanwhile, Kakao is looking to lose out due to its offline-to-online strategy. Whilst it is the operator of the largest messenger app in Korea, its share price has fallen 30% since the start of the year. Analyst, Oh Dong-hwan, said that “it seems inevitable for Kakao to see falls in profitability in the near [future]”.
