-Record High Q2 Performance This Year... Sales of 1.6635 Trillion KRW, Operating Profit of 335.6 Billion KRW
-Effective Business Diversification Strategy in Commerce, Fintech, Content, and Cloud Services
[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Naver recorded its highest-ever performance in the second quarter, driven by strong results across its major business divisions. Notably, the revenue share of four new business sectors?commerce, fintech, content, and cloud?surpassed 50% of the total for the first time, demonstrating success in business diversification.
On the 22nd, Naver announced that its second-quarter revenue reached KRW 1.6635 trillion, a 30.4% increase compared to the same period last year. Operating profit rose 16.2% year-over-year to KRW 335.6 billion.
Adjusted EBITDA, which reflects actual cash-generating ability, increased by 19.5% to a record high of KRW 480.4 billion. Net profit surged 496.1% to KRW 540.6 billion, influenced by equity method gains from A Holdings.
Naver’s strong performance is attributed to the effectiveness of its business diversification, particularly in commerce, fintech, content, and cloud sectors. The revenue share of these new business areas exceeded 50% for the first time, driving overall growth.
◆ ‘Remarkable Growth’ Across All Divisions = First, the Search Platform recorded KRW 826 billion, up 21.8% year-over-year and 9.7% quarter-over-quarter, thanks to improved search quality and increased advertising efficiency. Display ad revenue grew 48.0% year-over-year, driven by continuous growth in performance-based advertising.
Commerce achieved KRW 365.3 billion, up 42.6% year-over-year and 12.6% quarter-over-quarter, supported by the expansion of brand stores and growth among SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). The number of brand stores expanded to over 450, with transaction volume growing fivefold year-over-year. Shopping Live revenue also grew 17 times year-over-year, leveraging differentiated technology and the largest SME base in Korea.
Naver CEO Han Seong-sook expressed confidence in achieving the smart store transaction volume target set at the beginning of the year. During the conference call, she said, "Despite high base effects and the courier union strike, the number of smart store openings and internal indicators are progressing healthily. These factors are unlikely to have a significant impact in the second half, and there should be no major obstacles to achieving the KRW 25 trillion smart store transaction volume target set earlier this year."
Fintech recorded KRW 232.6 billion, up 41.2% year-over-year and 11.0% quarter-over-quarter, driven by the expansion of external partnerships and growth in existing partner malls. Naver Pay’s payment volume in Q2 grew 47% year-over-year to KRW 9.1 trillion.
Major new merchants such as Korean Air, Agoda, and SI Village were added, and the number of online external partner malls increased by 4,000 to 69,000 quarter-over-quarter. CEO Han stated, "Partner malls like Yogiyo, Nike, and Oasis Market, which ran additional point accumulation promotions, showed strong performance, resulting in a 55% year-over-year growth in external partner payment volume. The newly launched post-payment service showed positive results from initial beta tests with target buyers, and we plan to expand the beta test group in the second half of the year."
◆ Accelerating Global IP in the Second Half = The content division recorded KRW 144.8 billion, up 28.2% year-over-year and 10.7% quarter-over-quarter, driven by growth in webtoons and Snow. Webtoon revenue grew 53% year-over-year, supported by paid user conversion and expanded cross-border content. Snow’s revenue more than doubled year-over-year due to advertising introduction within the camera service and monetization of Zepeto.
Naver plans to accelerate its global intellectual property (IP) business through the integrated launch of Wattpad and Webtoon Studio in Q2. CEO Han said, "We will establish a KRW 100 billion fund to develop Wattpad IP content. At the end of June, we launched Wattpad Webtoon Studio and plan to actively expand our global content business based on over 1 billion original IPs."
She added, "Original content production in collaboration with partners holding famous global IPs is progressing smoothly. Starting with the release of Marvel’s Black Widow as a webtoon in July, we plan to expand our collaboration lineup with renowned IP holders in the second half."
The cloud division recorded KRW 94.9 billion, up 48.1% year-over-year and 16.2% quarter-over-quarter, driven by sustained demand for public cloud services. Naver Cloud Platform (NCP) revenue increased by more than 77% year-over-year. Naver also plans to begin full-scale testing of next-generation B2B solutions such as the hyper-large AI model ‘Hyper Clova’ and ‘Cloud Robot System.’
CEO Han emphasized, "We have once again proven that continuous growth is possible through technological R&D, service, and business model innovation. We will strengthen cooperation with strategic partners and actively promote the global content IP business to lay the foundation for future growth."
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