Kiwoom Securities039490.KS
About Kiwoom Securities
Kiwoom Securities pioneered online discount brokerage in South Korea and has long held the leading share of domestic retail equity trading. Part of the Daou Kiwoom Group, which is anchored by IT firm Daou Technology, the company runs a low-cost platform model: commissions from stock trading, interest on margin loans and customer deposits, and fees from overseas equity trading by Korean retail clients form the bulk of income, supplemented by proprietary trading and an expanding investment banking business. Its cost structure is lighter than that of branch-based rivals.
The earnings profile makes the stock a proxy for Korean household trading appetite, in both local shares and U.S. equities, so results are inherently cyclical. Margin-lending balances link profitability to market direction and to regulatory limits on retail leverage. Governance analysis centers on Kiwoom's place within the Daou Kiwoom ownership chain, while Korea's tiered brokerage licensing regime determines which balance-sheet businesses the firm may enter. Retail-driven fee income offers less of the recurring revenue found at asset-gathering peers.
Kiwoom was created in January 2000 as Kiwoom.com Securities, a startup within the Daou group, whose founder Kim Ik-rae had built Daou Technology into an early Korean software company. The new brokerage opened without branch offices at a time when rivals competed on the size of their physical networks, betting that Korean investors would migrate to home trading systems. The bet paid off quickly, and the firm later shortened its name to Kiwoom Securities. It subsequently added asset management and savings-bank affiliates under the Kiwoom umbrella, and today it anchors the financial side of the Daou Kiwoom group, which spans software, data services, and finance.
The operating model is deliberately spare: no branch network, a famous home trading system called Yeongwoong-mun, or Hero's Gate, and mobile apps that funnel enormous order flow through low headcount. Commission rates are thin, so profit leans on volume, on interest earned from margin loans and uninvested customer cash, and on foreign-exchange and handling charges when clients trade U.S. stocks. Management has recycled retail profits into proprietary trading and a growing underwriting business to reduce dependence on market turnover. Rivals have matched Kiwoom's pricing over the years, but its entrenched platform habits and active-trader community remain hard to dislodge.
Company profile by LineVest editorial. Journalism, not investment advice. Commission a full DART-based report on Kiwoom Securities →
Kiwoom Securities coverage
2 articles
Kiwoom Securities in Exclusive Talks to Acquire Bithumb Stake as Korean Brokers Race for Crypto Foothold
Kiwoom Securities is negotiating to acquire a stake in Bithumb through a third-party share issuance, joining Samsung Securities and Mirae Asset in Korea's broker–crypto exchange consolidation race.
PremiumKiwoom (039490.KS) Q1 2026: Operating Profit Surges 91% to ₩621B
Frequently asked questions
What does Kiwoom Securities do?
Kiwoom Securities is South Korea's dominant online brokerage. It lets retail investors trade Korean and overseas stocks, derivatives, and funds through its trading platforms, earns interest by lending against securities, and runs proprietary trading and investment banking operations. It has no traditional branch network, operating almost entirely through digital channels.
Who controls Kiwoom Securities?
Daou Technology, the software company at the center of the Daou Kiwoom group, is Kiwoom's largest shareholder, and the group traces to founder Kim Ik-rae's family. Control therefore runs through a chain of listed IT companies rather than a bank or conglomerate, and the family's influence is exercised at the group level.
How can foreign investors get exposure to Kiwoom Securities?
Kiwoom's shares are listed on the Korea Exchange under ticker 039490. Foreigners can trade them by opening an account with a broker that supports the Korean market and completing the required investor registration. Korea-focused index and sector funds provide an indirect route, since the stock features in major domestic benchmarks.
Answers are editorial summaries for general information, not investment advice.
Go deeper than the headline
You just read what happened. Here's how to read what it means.
The Korean market week, in one email
Every Saturday: the week's key KOSPI & KOSDAQ stories, earnings and foreign flows — picked from our daily coverage. Free, no card required.
Want it every morning before the open? LineVest Daily — $2.99/mo →
Full report on Kiwoom Securities
We read Kiwoom Securities's latest DART filing in full — financials under K-IFRS, governance, and what it means for the stock. PDF in your inbox within 3 hours.
$12 · one-time
Get the Kiwoom Securities reportFollow the whole market
Reading several Korean stocks a week? Read every analysis article the moment it publishes — full daily KOSPI & KOSDAQ coverage plus the 90-day archive.
$9.99 · monthly
SubscribeIndependent journalism based on primary DART filings — not investment advice. No brokerage affiliation.