DaumKakao appointed CEO Lim JiHoon of Kcube Ventures as its CEO on the 10th. It is known that he is an executive who has a tendency to be very aggressive and adventurous.
“When he was serving as a CEO of Kcube Ventures, he had a tendency to see finish lines of something that he decided on even if it takes days.” said one CEO of gaming business.
One person in internet industry who worked on a project with CEO Lim described him as a person who is very concrete on his decisions and said that he has adventurous and almost reckless characteristics because he does not look back when decisions are made.
A reason why DaumKakao chose a young CEO who is in his 30s (born in 1980, 35 years old) before celebrating 1 year anniversary of merger in October is because it feels sense of crisis as to there is not enough time to look to left and right anymore. It is planning to grow through fast and decisive decisions according to mobile generation.
“I recommended him to DaumKakao because I thought he was the right man who will lead true mobile generation that will start hereafter. DaumKakao will become an icon in innovating mobile generation.” said co-CEO Choi SaeHoon of DaumKakao.
If the first year of merger was a time when Daum and Kakao converged physically, DaumKakao is planning to focus on chemical convergence starting from time when CEO Lee is appointed.
DaumKakao’s growth is currently stagnant because its current source of income such as Kakao Games weakened and new businesses such as Kakao Taxi and others that successfully landed in market did not bring enough income.
It is predicted that it will speed up its process of simplifying business structure by eliminating services that did not secure users or profitability and focus on businesses that show promises.
DaumKakao is currently working on ‘pruning’ after the merger such as eliminating 15 to 16 services such as ‘My People’ and others.
Some people are brought up possibility of reorganization. One person in internet industry predicted that business maintenance centered on ‘Businesses That Work’ will occur at the same time as the appointment of new CEO due to bulkiness of DaumKakao’s business structure after the merger.
CEO Lee spent his elementary school days in South America. Some say that his personalities are similar to that of South Americans’ personalities as his temperament is very passionate and has no regards. He graduated from KAIST with an industrial engineering degree and received exception and served military duties at NHN (Currently Naver). Afterwards he served as a strategy manager at NHN, consultant for Boston Consulting Group, top evaluator for Soft Bank Ventures, and finally CEO of Kcubes Ventures where Chairman Kim Bum Soo is its largest shareholder. It is known that he acquainted with Chairman Kim Bum Soo of DaumKakao when he was working for Soft Bank Ventures.
CEO Lim will be appointed as formal CEO after going through temporary general meeting of stockholders and board of directors on the 23rd of September. There will be a new CEO for Kcube Ventures after September.
“By leading DaumKakao’s future that will lead mobile generation, I feel heavy responsibility and tension at the same time. I am going to do my best to make DaumKakao to become a mobile leading business that has global competitiveness.” said nominated CEO Lim JiHoon.
Staff Reporter Kim, Siso | siso@etnews.com