This file photo shows Naver Corp.’s headquarters in Seongnam, just southeast of Seoul. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Naver Corp., South Korea’s top internet portal operator, said Friday its third-quarter net profit jumped 53.8 percent from a year earlier, powered by robust growth of its commerce, content and cloud businesses.
Third-quarter net profit amounted to 356.2 billion won (US$265.2 million) on a consolidated basis in the July-September period, compared with a profit of 231.6 billion won for the same quarter last year, Naver said in a regulatory filing.
Operating profit stood at 380.2 billion won, up 15.1 percent from a year ago, and sales rose 18.9 percent on-year to 2.44 trillion won.
The earnings beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 286.2 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
The company attributed the strong earnings to the sharp growth of its commerce, content and cloud units.
Sales of Naver’s commerce unit soared 41.3 percent on-year to 647.4 billion won thanks to brisk sales from Brandstore, Travel and Kream.
Content sales advanced 39.5 percent on-year to 434.9 billion won, driven by the growth of its global webtoon business, increased sales on Snow, a popular camera application that offers photographic filters, and Zepeto, its metaverse platform.
Naver’s cloud unit saw its sales grow 30.3 percent to 123.6 billion won on increased demand for whalebook, a cloud-optimized laptop for educational use, and stronger business-to-business performance.
Naver’s flagship search platform saw its sales inch up 0.3 percent to 898.5 billion won in the third quarter from a year ago, and its fintech sales went up 15.1 percent on-year to 340.8 billion won.
“In the third quarter, we have presented our artificial intelligence business direction by unveiling the generative AI service line-up and the profitization road map,” Naver’s CEO Choi Soo-yeon said.
“Also, Naver will accelerate its global expansion using its service and accumulated technological capacity,” Choi said, noting its digital twin city project for Saudi Arabia.
Last month, Naver announced it has struck a deal with the Saudi Arabian government to create a digital twin platform for the country’s capital Riyadh and four other cities.
(Yonhap)
