Naver Q3 net profit up 48.8 pct on higher sales
SEOUL, Nov. 8 (Yonhap) -- Naver Corp., South Korea's leading internet portal operator, said Friday its third-quarter net profit jumped 48.8 percent from a year earlier thanks to increased sales.
Net profit for the three months ended in September reached 530.1 billion won (US$383 million), up from 356.2 billion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Its operating profit climbed 38.2 percent on-year to a quarterly high of 525.3 billion won, and sales rose 11.1 percent to 2.71 trillion won.
The earnings exceeded market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 406.6 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
The company attributed the strong performance to improved sales of its businesses.
Its mainstay search platform unit saw its sales grow 11 percent on-year to 997.7 billion won on new services launched to strengthen the competitiveness of the platform, such as a short-form video section.
Sales from the commerce unit rose 12 percent on-year to 725.4 billion won, and revenue from the financial technology unit improved 13 percent to 385.1 billion won.
The content unit also saw its revenue increase 6.4 percent to 462.8 billion won, and sales from the cloud business gain 17 percent to 144.6 billion won.
"Naver is continuing to advance its platform by bolstering the search function through artificial intelligence (AI) and data, and expanding hyper-personalized content tailored to the needs of the users," Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon said in a conference call.
As part of the plan, the company plans to apply AI search and briefing functions on its mobile search platform next year.
It also plans to strengthen its e-commerce business by releasing a separate AI shopping application in 2025.
Shares in Naver had shed 2.84 percent on the main Seoul bourse as of 1:50 p.m., underperforming the broader Korea Composite Stock Price Index's 0.26 percent drop.
nyway@yna.co.kr
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