Naver Achieves Record Annual Sales of 10 Trillion KRW
New Businesses Such as Commerce Drive Growth
Naver is expected to surpass 10 trillion KRW in annual sales for the first time among domestic internet platform companies, recording its highest-ever performance.
According to market forecasts compiled by Yonhap Infomax, Naver's total sales last year are projected to reach 10.6502 trillion KRW, a 10.15% increase from the previous year, marking an all-time high. The remarkable growth was driven by new businesses such as commerce, which accounted for 60% of total sales.
Seonhwa Lee, a researcher at KB Securities, said, "Naver plans to officially launch its separate shopping app, 'Naver Plus Store,' in the first quarter of this year," adding, "This will further strengthen consumer lock-in effects."
However, there are also concerns that to sustain continuous growth in the market, Naver must secure market share in commerce competition against companies like Coupang. Ji-eun Lee, a researcher at Daishin Securities, analyzed, "After strong performance in the third quarter, market expectations have risen," and "Naver faces the challenge of recovering the market share gap with Coupang through commerce restructuring by 2025."
Naver is focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) as a core pillar of its platform business and is concentrating on developing its own large language model (LLM), HyperCLOVA X. This year, Naver plans to sequentially introduce 'AI Briefing,' which applies HyperCLOVA X to its search function, within the first quarter. Recently, as Chinese AI company DeepSeek unveiled its model R1, expectations have grown that domestic software companies will benefit, leading to a strong performance by Naver in the stock market.
Seungho Choi, a researcher at Sangsangin Securities, explained, "The reason DeepSeek shocked the market is that it implied that overwhelmingly high computing resources might not be necessary to implement high-performance models," adding, "The strength of open source could be an opportunity for domestic companies to narrow the gap with major big tech firms."
Naver is expected to surpass 10 trillion won in annual sales for the first time among domestic internet platform companies, recording its highest-ever performance.
Naver achieved annual sales of 1 trillion KRW in 2008, the first among internet platforms and venture companies, and continued its rapid growth with 2 trillion KRW in 2011, 3 trillion KRW in 2015, 4 trillion KRW in 2016, and 5 trillion KRW in 2018. It has now entered the '10 trillion KRW club' six years after surpassing 5 trillion KRW. If Naver reaches 10 trillion KRW in annual sales, it will become the eighth company to exceed 10 trillion KRW in sales within 25 years of its founding.
Previously, Samsung Electronics (25 years), SK Telecom (19 years), SK Hynix (17 years), KT (17 years), LG Uplus (16 years), Hyundai Glovis (11 years), and Coupang (10 years) have joined the '10 trillion KRW club' within 25 years of their founding.
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