April 21, 2024

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South Korea’s top internet portal operator Naver said Oct. 31 that its net profit jumped 24.7 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier due largely to the sound performance of its overall business.

Its net profit reached 85.3 billion won ($73.1 million) in the July-September period, compared with a profit of 68.4 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Operating income reached 202.1 billion won during the cited period, marking a decrease of 8.9 percent from the year before. Revenue rose 19.1 percent to 1.66 trillion won, Naver said.

The company attributed the increase in net profit and sales to its overall business‘s good performance, derived from cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence.

“Naver has heavily invested in AI technology, which is now used in various sectors such as advertising and content recommendation,” CEO Han Seong-sook said.

Revenue from its business platform increased 17.3 percent on-year to 719.3 billion won in the third quarter, helped by AI-based shopping searches, the company said.

Naver said revenue from its content skyrocketed 64.1 percent on-year to 54.5 billion won during the same period on the back of the increased popularity of webtoons, or web-based comics.

Revenue from its IT platform business, which covers Naver Pay and cloud computing services, surged 27.2 percent on-year to 116.3 billion won.

The advertising business revenue was up 12.2 percent on-year to 152.7 billion won in the third quarter on the back of increased ad inventories.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)