Kakao Entertainment카카오엔터테인먼트

Kakao Entertainment (카카오엔터테인먼트) is a South Korean music, webtoon and media company, and a subsidiary of the internet group Kakao. It was formed in March 2021 by merging two Kakao companies: KakaoPage Corp., the webtoon and web-novel company founded in 2010 as Podotree, and Kakao M, the music, film and talent business that grew out of Seoul Records and LOEN Entertainment.¹ In September 2021 the Melon streaming service joined it as a company-in-company.¹ Kakao owns 63.50% of Kakao Entertainment, which is based in Seongnam, south of Seoul, and is run by co-CEOs Ko Jung-hee and Joseph Chang.¹

Its best-known music property is the Melon Music Awards (MMA), which began in 2005. Kakao Entertainment describes the show as honouring the year's top performers on Melon chart data, user votes and expert evaluations; the 18th edition, MMA2026, is on November 14–15 at Gocheok Sky Dome, the first spread over two days.² Under the official 2026 rules, most prizes are scored 60% on digital data, 20% by a panel and 20% by votes, while Record of the Year is decided entirely by a panel.³ DabPop's archive of every MMA daesang shows BTS with the most, 13 of the 58 grand prizes handed out, and IU with the most for a soloist, five.⁵ The company has also linked the show to its "Global-K Chart", built with Tencent Music and LINE MUSIC.²

On the webtoon side, dramas adapted from Kakao Webtoon titles include Itaewon Class (이태원 클라쓰, 16.548% peak on JTBC) and The Uncanny Counter (경이로운 소문, 10.999% on OCN); the web novels Again My Life and Business Proposal, both adapted for SBS, were published on KakaoPage.⁶ At the end of 2025, Kakao Entertainment held 19.89% of SM Entertainment, alongside 21.61% held by Kakao itself.⁴