By Park Jae-hyuk BlackRock appears to be falling into a dilemma over its strategy to prioritize environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) criteria after Kakao sparked severe public criticism for an alleged workplace bullying incident, just a few days after the IT firm attracted an additional investment from the world's largest asset management company. Given that commitment to employee welfare is classified as a "social factor" in ESG criteria, attention is focused on whether or not BlackRock will reconsider its investment in Kakao. According to its recent regulatory filing, BlackRock became the fourth-largest shareholder of Kakao last Monday, following Kakao Chairman Kim Beom-su, the National Pension Service (NPS) and Tencent's subsidiary Maximo, by increasing its stake to 5.18 percent from 4.96 percent. The Kakao shares held by BlackRock are worth over 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion).