Pandemic lifts Naver's Q3 sales to all-time high, net profit triples
Joo-Wan Kim
Oct 29, 2020 (Gmt+09:00)
South Korea’s largest internet portal Naver Corp.’s third-quarter net profit nearly tripled, while its sales rose to a record high, driven by solid growth in its online advertisement and e-commerce business in the pandemic era.
Net profit in the three months to September was 235.3 billion won ($207 million) compared to a profit of 85.3 billion won in the same quarter a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing on Oct. 29.
While operating profit gained 1.8% on year to 291.7 billion won, revenue increased 24% to a record quarterly high of 1.36 trillion won.
Naver said its strong quarterly results were largely driven by the COVID-19 pandemic-induced rise in online shopping and robust sales in cloud and content businesses.
Revenue from its commerce business increased 41% on year to 285.4 billion won, while sales in its search platform business gained 8.2% to 710.1 billion won.
Revenue in its cloud business soared 66% on year to 76.3 billion amid the work-from-home trend due to the pandemic. Content sales rose 32% to 115 billion won on increased global demand for its webtoons.
NEW BUSINESSES TAKE OFF
“The stellar performance was thanks to solid growth in new businesses such as fintech, contents and cloud,” Naver Chief Executive Han Seong-sook said during a third-quarter results conference call with analysts. “We will continue to enhance our global competitiveness through partnerships with other companies.”