Daum Kakao appears to strengthen its mobile business and jump into e-commerce by buying a secondhand firm Sell It.
On Friday, Daum Kakao’s subsidiary K Cube Ventures said it decided to buy Sell It for around 10 billion won ($9 million). Sell It is a new startup specializing in transacting secondhand mobile and IT devices.
K Cube Ventures said on Friday, “As the e-commerce platform is shifting from personal computer to mobile phones, the growth potential in Customer to Customer service is expected to be high. We decided to invest in the firm as it has brought innovation in the secondhand e-commerce business by reducing risk and increasing efficiency.”
Sell It has shown a rapid growth in sales since it was first launched in August 2013. Early this year, its monthly sales reached 100 million won and the firm aims to raise the figure to 1 billion won this year.
“Daum Kakao is restructuring its business portfolios in an attempt to strengthen its mobile business. More purchases on startups are expected with the firm’s more than 400 billion won in cash,” a local market watcher said.
The Internet giant has recently restructured its business portfolios by shutting down its sluggish messenger service MyPeople and opening new Kakao Taxi service.
By Shin Ji-hye