3Q Revenue Reaches 3.1381 Trillion Won, Up 15.6% Year-on-Year
Operating Profit Hits Record High of 570.6 Billion Won
"On-Service AI Delivers Results... AI Integration to Expand Further"
Naver achieved its first-ever quarterly revenue exceeding 3 trillion won and recorded its highest operating profit to date. This was driven by the success of 'On-Service AI,' which integrates artificial intelligence (AI) into Naver's services. By providing AI-based personalized content and shopping product recommendations, the company saw an increase in both search advertising and commerce revenue.
Naver announced on November 5 that its consolidated revenue for the third quarter of this year reached 3.1381 trillion won, up 15.6% from the same period last year. During the same period, operating profit rose by 8.6% year-on-year to 570.6 billion won. Compared to the previous quarter, revenue increased by 7.6% and operating profit by 9.4%.
This is the first time Naver's quarterly revenue has surpassed 3 trillion won. Operating profit also reached an all-time high on a quarterly basis. A Naver representative explained, "In the third quarter, major business segments such as the search platform and commerce continued to show solid growth due to the effects of AI integration."
By business segment in the third quarter, revenue was as follows: search platform 1.0602 trillion won, commerce 985.5 billion won, fintech 433.1 billion won, content 509.3 billion won, and enterprise 150 billion won.
Search platform revenue increased by 6.3% year-on-year and 2.3% quarter-on-quarter to 1.0602 trillion won, driven by improved advertising efficiency using AI tools such as ADVoost and the expansion of feed services. Overall Naver platform advertising grew by 10.5% compared to the same period last year. The daily average number of users for the Naver Home Feed surpassed 10 million. This was attributed to an increase in high-quality user-generated content (UGC) and enhanced AI personalization recommendations.
Commerce revenue grew by 35.9% year-on-year and 14.4% quarter-on-quarter to 985.5 billion won. The enhancement of personalized experiences focused on discovery and exploration within the Naver Plus Store, the expansion of the rapid delivery service 'N Delivery,' and strengthened membership benefits all contributed to the increase in revenue. The transaction volume of Smart Store rose by 12.3% compared to the same period last year.
Fintech revenue reached 433.1 billion won, up 12.5% year-on-year and 5.2% quarter-on-quarter. In the third quarter, Naver Pay's transaction volume grew by 21.7% year-on-year to 22.7 trillion won, driven by the growth of Smart Store and the expansion of its external ecosystem.
The content segment achieved revenue of 509.3 billion won, up 10% year-on-year and 7.4% quarter-on-quarter, thanks to the growth of Naver Webtoon and an increase in paid subscribers to camera apps. The enterprise segment posted revenue of 150 billion won, a 3.8% year-on-year increase, due to new revenue from GPU as a Service (GPUaaS) and an increase in paid IDs for the business platform LINE WORKS.
Naver plans to gradually expand the application of On-Service AI across all of its services. At the end of March, Naver launched the 'AI Briefing' service, which provides AI-based summary results in integrated search and the Naver Plus Store. The AI automatically summarizes search results based on keywords. Next year, Naver plans to introduce an 'AI Tab' that will be separated as a dedicated tab within integrated search, offering conversation-based search results.
Choi Sooyun, CEO of Naver, stated, "As a result of focusing on AI-based advancement of our services and business under the On-Service AI direction, we have seen tangible outcomes in terms of expanding business opportunities and generating profits." She added, "We will further broaden the application of AI to new areas in line with the upcoming AI agent environment, strengthening our core competitiveness while also striving to discover future growth engines for global expansion."
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