Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea's top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, said Thursday its third-quarter net profit jumped nearly six times from a year earlier on the back of robust growth of its content businesses amid the pandemic.

Net profit reached 866.3 billion won ($733.1 million) in the July-September period on a consolidated basis, compared with a profit of 143.7 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The operating income for the cited period came to 168.2 billion won, compared with 120.2 billion won a year ago, Kakao said.

Sales also jumped by 58.2 percent on-year to 1.74 trillion won during the cited period.

The company attributed the stellar performance to the robust growth of its content business that encompasses game, story, music and media sectors.

Revenue from the content business surged by 84 percent on-year to 962.1 billion won.

Noticeably, revenue from games jumped 47 percent on-year to 218.7 billion won during the quarter due to the popularity of its new titles.

Revenue from its new business sector, which includes Kakao Mobility and Kakao Pay, jumped by 54 percent on-year to 254.7 billion won.

Kakao said the revenue from its platform business increased by 35 percent on-year to 778.7 billion won over the cited period thanks to the steady growth of Biz Message and Talk Biz. (Yonhap)