Daum Kakao, the company behind South Korea’s most popular messaging app KakaoTalk, reported a sharp increase in its net profit last year due mainly to the merger between Daum Communication and Kakao Corp in October.

Its net profit jumped 127 per cent to KRW149.9 billion ($135 million), while revenue fell 6 per cent to KRW499 billion, the Korea Herald said.

The company said it would pay a dividend of KRW171 per common share or a total of KRW10 billion.

Late last year it expanded to offer games, e-commerce and a social network-based mobile wallet service, BankWalletKakao.

It also announced in December it would join rival LINE by launching a mobile taxi-hailing service.