Choi Sooyeon: "Expanding AI Briefing Search... 30 Million Monthly Users"
"AI Tab Launch Planned for Next Year... AI Shopping Agent Coming This Year"
Q2 Revenue Reaches 2.9151 Trillion Won, Up 11.7% Year-on-Year
Operating Profit Rises 10.3% to 521.6 Billion Won
Naver achieved its highest-ever quarterly revenue in the second quarter, driven by strong performances in key businesses such as commerce and search platforms. Building on these robust results, the company announced plans to significantly increase the application of AI-powered search results beyond its original targets, reinforcing its 'On-Service AI' strategy.
On August 8, Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon announced during the Q2 earnings conference call that the company would expand the scope of AI Briefing to 20%. AI Briefing, launched at the end of March, is a service that provides AI-based summary results in integrated search and Naver Plus Store. Depending on the search keyword, AI automatically summarizes and delivers search results. Currently, AI Briefing covers up to 8% of all search results and is used by 30 million monthly users. With growing confidence in its performance, Naver has set an aggressive goal to expand this coverage to 20%.
CEO Choi explained, "The number of content clicks generated in search sessions where AI Briefing is displayed is higher compared to integrated search," adding, "We are seeing positive effects in several metrics, such as increased dwell time at the top of search results compared to the same period last year."
Naver has positioned its business strategy around 'On-Service AI,' continuously expanding AI utilization. This approach involves closely integrating AI technologies into Naver's search, advertising, shopping, and content services. Increasing the adoption of AI Briefing, which displays AI-based search results, is a key element of the On-Service AI strategy.
Naver decided to expand AI Briefing coverage because user metrics have been more positive than initially expected. CEO Choi explained, "User data such as dwell time, additional searches, and content clicks are at levels similar to or even higher than those of Google, which led us to increase the application of AI Briefing."
Naver also plans to launch a new AI Tab (tentative name) next year, which will be separated from integrated search and provide conversation-based search results. CEO Choi stated, "Next year, we will introduce an AI Tab within Naver, where users can utilize conversational AI search to experience in-depth, data-driven search. Users will be able to access conversational search within Naver Search at any time."
In the commerce division, a shopping AI agent will also be introduced within this year. CEO Choi said, "We plan to launch a shopping AI agent within the year to further enhance the user experience," adding, "Similar to a professional sales advisor in an offline store, the AI agent will closely assist individual customers with their shopping, answer questions, provide information, and support purchases."
Naver announced on this day that its consolidated revenue and operating profit for the second quarter of this year were provisionally tallied at 2.9151 trillion won and 521.6 billion won, respectively. Compared to the same period last year, revenue increased by 11.7% and operating profit by 10.3%. Q2 2025 revenue marks the highest quarterly result in the company’s history. Net profit for the period was 497.4 billion won, up 49.8% year-on-year.
Breaking down Q2 revenue by business segment: Search Platform 1.0365 trillion won, Commerce 861.1 billion won, Fintech 411.7 billion won, Content 474.0 billion won, and Enterprise 131.7 billion won.
Search Platform revenue rose 5.9% year-on-year to 1.0365 trillion won, and 2.4% compared to the previous quarter. This was driven by increased dwell time through new AI-based services and feeds, as well as ad inventory optimization and advanced targeting. Overall Naver platform advertising grew by 8.7% year-on-year and 5.6% quarter-on-quarter.
The Commerce division showed the strongest growth among business segments, with revenue of 861.1 billion won, up 19.8% year-on-year and 9.3% quarter-on-quarter. This was attributed to the successful establishment of the Naver Plus Store app, enhanced benefits for Naver Plus Membership, and securing competitiveness in N Delivery. On-Platform transaction volume for Naver Commerce, driven by growth in Smart Store and service transaction volume in Q2, increased by 9.0% year-on-year.
The Naver Plus Store, launched as a standalone app in March, is rapidly expanding its user base. The paid Naver Plus Membership increased subscribers by offering an ad-supported standard plan through a partnership with Netflix, and recently added Microsoft (MS) Xbox’s 'PC Game Pass' as a new benefit.
Fintech revenue for Q2 was 411.7 billion won, up 11.7% year-on-year and 4.8% quarter-on-quarter. Naver Pay’s Q2 transaction volume reached 20.8 trillion won, up 18.7% year-on-year, driven by Smart Store growth and expansion of the external ecosystem. Within this year, Naver Pay plans to launch various payment terminals supporting user convenience features such as Face Sign.
Content revenue grew 12.8% year-on-year and 3.2% quarter-on-quarter to 474.0 billion won, thanks to a rebound in webtoon growth and an increase in paid subscribers to the camera app. The Enterprise segment posted 131.7 billion won in revenue, up 5.8% year-on-year but down 1.9% quarter-on-quarter, due to growth in public sector sales and expansion of paid LINE WORKS IDs.
Naver is also focusing on developing AI foundation models. Its subsidiary Naver Cloud has open-sourced various AI models, including inference models. The consortium led by Naver Cloud was the only platform company selected as an elite team for the government’s independent AI foundation model project. During the project evaluation, the consortium was recognized for Naver Cloud’s capability to develop full-stack AI independently.
Global expansion is accelerating as well. On August 5, Naver acquired the remaining shares of Wallapop, Spain’s largest C2C (consumer-to-consumer) platform, for 377 million euros (approximately 604.5 billion won), securing management control. With the full acquisition of Wallapop, Naver plans to actively expand its business in the European market. In the United States, the company plans to launch a new social networking service (SNS) called 'Singsbook' through its subsidiary. Singsbook is expected to be a platform similar to Naver Blog, allowing users to organize and share personal records.
CEO Choi stated, "As a platform with data on UGC (user-generated content), shopping, places, and user patterns, we are focusing on integrating AI technology to strengthen competitiveness and expand monetization opportunities. We will continue to secure new business references for mid- to long-term growth and lay the foundation for global expansion."
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