Even in the midst of the recession and economic downturn in the IT and startup industries, there are some companies that are solidifying their leadership by recording the highest sales and performance ever. They are demonstrating solid business models and user demand in their respective fields and are achieving the best performance since their establishment.
What these companies have in common is their iconic position as representatives of their respective markets. We looked into companies that are breaking their own records and continuing high growth amid the increasingly intense 'separation of the wheat from the chaff' movement.
◆ Beyond second-hand trading, Carrot has evolved into a local community super app
Carrot, which grew from a traditional second-hand trading platform to a hyperlocal community platform, also recorded its best performance last year, successfully turning a profit for the first time. Carrot’s consolidated sales last year were 189.2 billion won, up 48.1% year-on-year, with operating profit of 2.5 billion won and net profit of 8.4 billion won.
Carrot, which is being reborn as a local community platform that connects all aspects of local life, is expanding its territory to include life-oriented services such as Carrot Part-time Job, Carrot Meeting, and Carrot Story in addition to second-hand trading. Based on its global expansion strategy, it is also sparing no effort in expanding to overseas stages as well as domestic ones. Carrot plans to continue to expand into a local-based super app through technological advancement and service diversification.
◆ Achieving the Triple Crown of Sales, Operating Profit, and Number of Users, Delight Room
Delight Room, which operates the sleep and wake-up solution app 'Alami', also achieved the highest sales performance of all time. Alami is loved by people around the world as a sleep tech service that helps with the entire process from falling asleep to waking up, including sleep-inducing music, sleep analysis, and mission alarms. As of the first quarter of this year, Alami's daily active users (DAU) reached 2.6 million.
Delight Room has also been drawing attention as a 'centaur-type' company that has grown without external investment since its establishment. Recently, in addition to its existing main services, it has also been expanding its growth momentum through continuous business expansion. As a representative example, it achieved sales of 9 billion won in just one year after its launch through 'Daro', an in-app advertising monetization service that condenses its previous advertising monetization know-how.
◆ Naver enters the '10 trillion club' for the first time since its establishment
Naver, which surpassed 10 trillion won in annual sales for the first time since its founding last year, achieved annual sales of 10.7377 trillion won in 2024, up 11% from 2023, and annual operating profit of 1.9793 trillion won, up 32.9% from the previous year. Naver is rapidly evolving into a comprehensive information search platform based on AI technology, going beyond simple search information provider. In particular, it is continuing to make aggressive technology investments by introducing AI across all services, including search, content, and shopping, so that users can conveniently and accurately search for broader and deeper information.
Naver is focusing on the commerce business as a key axis for its performance growth this year. As part of this, it has also received a great response by incorporating an AI-based product search function into its shopping app 'Naver Plus Store', which was launched last March. Naver, which has been showing the highest performance every quarter, plans to showcase the future of platform expansion centered on AI technology.
◆ 1 trillion corporate value target, salaryman rich people
There is a startup that has emerged as a dark horse in the financial technology market for office workers with the belief that ‘even salaried workers can become rich’. It is Salaried Rich. Salaried Rich recorded sales of 50.8 billion won and operating profit of 28.3 billion won last year, achieving the best performance ever in five years, a 27-fold increase in sales. What is particularly noteworthy is the high operating profit rate of over 55%, and it is expected to achieve a corporate value of 1 trillion won by continuing the consecutive surplus since its first year of establishment.
The secret to the success of Salaried Rich lies in a community system based on strong communication with customers, the power of high-quality content produced in-house, and a multi-channel strategy that effectively operates various online channels. They mainly focus on real estate, stocks, side jobs, etc., and provide customized curricula and close management programs that fit each student's life cycle and asset size to help them 'buy their own home' and 'prepare for a happy retirement.' Salaried Rich aims to continue to grow together with customers and provide a turning point in life to office workers.
◆ Krafton Surpasses 1 Trillion Won in Operating Profit
Krafton surpassed 1 trillion won in annual operating profit last year. During the same period, sales exceeded 2.7 trillion won, recording the best performance since its founding. This is a 41.8% and 54% increase year-on-year, respectively. Krafton aims to achieve 7 trillion won in sales and double its corporate value within the next five years. As a strategy for this, it has proposed a strategy of joint growth of new and old intellectual property (IP) and advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Behind Krafton’s rapid growth is the free PC version of its flagship game ‘Battleground (PUBG)’ series and content enhancement. Overseas performance has also grown rapidly, with related sales increasing by approximately 35.7% for the mobile India version (BGMI). Krafton plans to showcase new growth potential by advancing technologies such as AI collaborative characters (CPC) that can interact with game users.
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