kt millie seojae

KT Millie's Library, founded in 2016, operates Korea's first flat-rate e-book subscription platform, was absorbed into KT-affiliated Genie Music in 2021, and listed on KOSDAQ in 2023.

Its core service offers unlimited access to more than 230,000 e-book titles, and it has expanded the reading experience through secondary content formats such as audiobooks, chat-style books, and docent books.

Sales channels have diversified beyond B2C individual subscriptions to include B2B corporate contracts and B2BC telecom/platform partnerships, with telecom bundling and MVNO tie-ups recently contributing to user growth.

Since 2025, the company has rolled out webtoon and web novel services under the 'Millie Story' brand, extending its content value chain into IP, and pursues a one-source-multi-use strategy of adapting original web novels into webtoons for distribution on overseas platforms.

The company is reported to hold more than 60% share of the domestic reading-platform market, while its webtoon and web novel push places it in competition with larger platforms such as Naver Webtoon and Kakao Page.

Its controlling shareholder is KT-affiliated Genie Music, and the company seeks synergies in IP sourcing and secondary content production through collaboration with KT's media value chain, including KT Studio Genie.

More recently, it discontinued underused participatory audiobook and video-review features to concentrate resources on strengthening its core content competitiveness.

FY2025 revenue rose to KRW 88.19bn, up 21.4% from KRW 72.60bn a year earlier, while operating profit climbed 30.6% to KRW 14.37bn, translating into a 16.3% operating margin. Net profit attributable to owners jumped to KRW 15.76bn from KRW 11.50bn, continuing the earnings recovery trend.

Looking at the quarterly pattern, however, 3Q25 revenue of KRW 22.79bn and operating profit of KRW 4.28bn (an operating margin of roughly 18.8%) gave way to 4Q25, when revenue rose to KRW 24.70bn but operating profit fell sharply to KRW 1.63bn (a 6.6% margin).

Owners' net profit in 4Q25, by contrast, jumped to KRW 5.63bn, suggesting non-operating items influenced the bottom line that quarter.

Entering 2026, 1Q26 posted revenue of KRW 23.93bn and operating profit of KRW 3.90bn, while 2Q26 posted revenue of KRW 23.85bn and operating profit of KRW 3.39bn; revenue growth continued, but operating margins of 16.3% and 14.2% did not return to the 3Q25 level.

According to the company's disclosed 1Q26 results, revenue and operating profit rose 19.6% and 4.9% year-on-year, respectively, a result the company described as extending a 16-consecutive-quarter streak of operating profitability.

In 2Q26, the company disclosed that revenue grew 15.2% year-on-year, with cumulative first-half revenue reaching KRW 47.8bn, up 17.4% year-on-year.

This pattern shows that subscriber base expansion and content diversification are underpinning revenue growth, while investment in the new webtoon/web novel business and marketing costs are exerting offsetting pressure on operating margins.

Korea's reading-platform market, centered on e-book subscriptions, has entered a mature phase, prompting operators to seek new growth drivers through secondary content formats such as audiobooks and chat-style books, as well as entry into the webtoon and web novel markets.

Statistics Korea data has reportedly shown a long-term decline in the reading population that has recently ticked up slightly, underscoring content diversification as a shared industry challenge to expand the user base.

The webtoon and web novel market is highly competitive, with large platforms such as Naver Webtoon and Kakao Page already holding dominant positions, and KT Millie's Library is pursuing a later-entrant strategy leveraging its existing subscriber base and KT's media value chain.

Domestic audiobook usage has reportedly grown rapidly, with the company noting that usage of secondary content such as chat-style books and docent books has increased substantially over several years.

Exporting IP through overseas licensing has become a common growth strategy among domestic content companies, and the company has joined this trend through licensing deals for its original web novels and webtoons across Asian and Eastern European markets.

Telecom bundling and MVNO channel expansion have become a shared subscriber-acquisition channel among domestic subscription content platforms.

Competitively, KT Millie's Library holds an advantage in the reading-platform segment but stands as a later entrant that must prove its content competitiveness in the newly entered webtoon and web novel segment.

The company has set a target of achieving a 15% average annual revenue growth rate over the three-year period from 2026 to 2028 while expanding profit, and has also stated a policy of using roughly 30% of net income for shareholder returns.

First-half 2026 results have tracked this guidance in terms of revenue growth, though operating margins have fluctuated somewhat quarter to quarter, leaving cost and marketing expense management as a key variable for future profit improvement.

On the content side, expanding the subscriber share of the 'Millie Story' webtoon/web novel line and broadening overseas licensing of original IP are presented as central to the medium-term growth story, with licensing deals already signed across multiple countries including Turkey, Thailand, Russia, and Vietnam.

On the operational side, the company is restructuring by discontinuing underused features—participatory audiobooks and three-minute reviews—and reallocating resources to core content, a move that carries both the risk of losing some users of those features and the benefit of operational efficiency.

On shareholder returns, a dividend policy long absent since listing has recently been introduced, and the company is in an early stage of aligning with parent KT's shareholder return stance.

Expanding corporate subscriptions through B2B and B2BC channels and diversifying telecom partnerships are also cited as ongoing factors supporting subscriber base growth.