In one of the most highly anticipated IPOs in South Korea this year, Shift Up, an online game developer, saw its shares soar in their trading debut on the Korea Exchange. This made the company’s founder and CEO, Kim Hyung-tae, a billionaire as the shares closed at 71,000 won on their first day of trading, up 18% from the offering price. With a valuation of around 4.1 trillion won (about $3 billion), Shift Up is now the fourth-largest online gaming company listed in South Korea by market capitalization. Kim, who is 45 years old, is the largest shareholder of Shift Up with a 39% stake in his name, while his wife holds a nearly 0.5% stake. Forbes estimates their net worth at $1 billion.
The company raised 435 billion won (about $320 million) in an initial public offering of 7.25 million shares at 60,000 won each, at the top of its indicative range. The proceeds of the IPO will be used by Shift Up to develop new games and expand popular titles like Goddess of Victory: Nikke and Stellar Blade. This IPO is the second-largest in South Korea this year, following HD Hyundai Marine Solution’s offering in May, and is the country’s largest gaming IPO since Krafton’s float in 2021. Investors that backed Shift Up before its IPO include Tencent, Wemade, Kakao Ventures, Daesung Group’s private equity arm, Smilegate Investment, and IMM Investment.
Shift Up, based in Seoul’s Gangnam neighborhood, was founded by Kim in 2013. The company reported a 155% year-over-year revenue increase to 169 billion won ($122 million) in 2023, with net income rising to 107 billion won from a previous year loss of 7 billion won. The majority of its revenue—97%—came from its flagship game, Goddess of Victory: Nikke, which has over 5 million downloads on the Google Play store and is currently the No. 5 top-grossing mobile role-playing game in the U.S. Goddess of Victory: Nikke is a third-person shooter and role-playing game with anime-style graphics that generates revenue through in-game purchases using the “gacha” technique.
To reduce its dependence on Goddess of Victory: Nikke, Shift Up released Stellar Blade, a Sony PlayStation video game, in April of this year. The game is priced at about $73 and has a high rating on the PlayStation Store. Daishin Securities analyst Lee Jee-eun praised Shift Up for developing two successful games in the global market and noted the company’s plans to develop new games and release sequels using existing intellectual property starting in 2025. Kim is now among the Korean billionaires who have made fortunes from the online gaming sector, including Smilegate’s Kwon Hyuk-bin, NCSoft’s Kim Taek-jin, Lionheart Studio’s Kim Jae-young, and Netmarble’s Bang Jun-hyuk. South Korea, known for its fast internet speeds, has been a pioneer in developing popular multiplayer online games such as NCSoft’s Lineage and Nexon’s MapleStory.
