Naver Corp.’s headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. (Image: Naver)
SEOUL, April 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s top internet portal operator, Naver Corp., said Thursday its net profit jumped 11,252.5 percent on-year during the first quarter due to accounting profits.
Net profit reached 15.31 trillion won (US$13.8 billion) during the January-April period, compared with 134.9 billion won in the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing.
The record profit in the first quarter is due to accounting profits reflected from the business integration of its messaging firm Line Corp. in Japan with Yahoo Japan.
On March 1, Z Holdings Corp., a parent company of Yahoo Japan, and Line announced the completion of the business integration between the two companies.
Operating income reached 288.8 billion won for the cited period, down 1 percent from the year before. Sales reached 1.49 trillion won during the same period, representing a 29.8 percent increase compared with the year before, Naver said.
Noticeably, combined sales of new businesses that have become growth engines, including commerce, fintech, content and the cloud, jumped 46.3 percent on-year during the cited quarter.
Revenue from Naver’s commerce business in the first quarter increased 40.3 percent on-year to 324.4 billion won thanks to steady growth of small online sellers.
This file photo taken Oct. 6, 2020, shows Naver Corp.’s headquarters in Seongnam, south of Seoul. (Yonhap)
Naver attributed the growth to its livestreaming shopping platform, Shopping Live. The transaction amount jumped nearly twofold in the quarter compared to a quarter earlier.
The number of Smart Stores, operated by individual sellers, expanded to 450,000, with 320 of them operated by major companies such as cosmetics giant Amorepacific Group.
The company’s flagship search platform, which covers its ads business, also grew, with its sales rising 16.8 percent on-year to 752.7 billion won during the cited period.
Content sales rose 40 percent to 130.8 billion won over the same period due to increased global demand for its webtoons.
Naver said it will complete the acquisition of Canadian entertainment platform operator Wattpad Corp. valued at 653.3 billion won by May to accelerate its content business in the global market.
The Toronto-based storytelling platform provides stories through its flagship app. It is a community of more than 90 million people globally who spend over 23 billion minutes a month engaged in original stories.
Sales from the fintech sector also expanded 52.2 percent on-year to 209.5 billion won in the cited quarter on the back of cooperation with gaming giant Nexon Co.
Revenue from its cloud business skyrocketed 71.1 percent on-year to 81.7 billion won in the first quarter as demand grew amid the remote working trend due to the pandemic.
(Yonhap)
