CEO Choi Suyeon: "Accelerating the commerce business this year"
Strengthening competitiveness with the launch of a shopping AI agent at the end of this month
"Doubling the coverage of AI Briefing by the end of the year"
Naver, which is strengthening its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, has become the first domestic internet platform company to surpass annual revenue of 12 trillion won. Naver plans to kick its commerce competitiveness into full gear by launching its shopping agent at the end of this month, and to continue its growth trajectory through AI advancement by unveiling features such as an AI tab in the first half of the year.
On February 6, Naver announced in a regulatory filing that, on a consolidated basis, its provisional figures for last year show revenue of 12.035 trillion won, up 12.1% year-on-year, and operating profit of 2.2081 trillion won, up 11.6%. Revenue and operating profit for the fourth quarter of last year came in at 3.1951 trillion won and 610.6 billion won, respectively, both posting double-digit growth rates.
Growth in platform advertising, commerce, and fintech (finance + technology) segments last year drove the strong performance. Annual revenue from the search platform segment rose 5.6% to 4.1689 trillion won. Annual revenue from commerce climbed 26.2% to 3.6884 trillion won, while the annual transaction volume of Smart Store also increased by 10%.
CEO Choi Suyeon: "Strengthening delivery competitiveness is the top priority"
In particular, the commerce segment stood out thanks to the growth of Smart Store and the global C2C (consumer-to-consumer) business. While Coupang has faltered amid a personal information leakage incident, Naver has been expanding partnerships with Netflix, Kurly, and Spotify, and strengthening its membership program.
Choi Suyeon, CEO of Naver (NAVER), stated, "This year, with a clear goal of making it a turning point that accelerates the leap of our commerce business, we plan to continuously strengthen AI-based personalization, expand the N Delivery infrastructure, and enhance membership competitiveness." She added, "Strengthening delivery competitiveness is the top priority," and said, "We will make delivery not a factor that limits Naver, but a reason for users to choose Naver."
Naver will push ahead with AI advancement by, among other things, doubling the current coverage of its AI Briefing service by the end of the year. CEO Choi emphasized, "The key point of the AI tab is that it is organically connected with Naver's various services such as Shopping, Place, and Maps," and added, "The AI tab is different from existing list-based search in that it is a conversational AI search. When users ask a question, AI will guide them along the optimal path and perform the role of an 'integrated AI agent' that supports them all the way through to purchase or reservation."
AI tab to be unveiled in the first half... will function as an 'integrated agent'
Naver is also working to improve the cost efficiency of the infrastructure that accompanies the expansion of AI search. CEO Choi said, "We have unified the graphics processing units (GPUs), which were previously managed at each service level, into an integrated operations platform," and continued, "By shifting to a lightweight model specialized for AI search services, we have also built the capacity to handle the same workloads more cost-effectively. By extending application from AI Briefing to the AI tab, we will establish a foundation for sustainable AI service operations."
Annual revenue from the fintech segment grew 12.1% year-on-year to 1.6907 trillion won, while the content segment recorded 1.8992 trillion won, up 5.7%. Annual revenue from the enterprise segment totaled 587.8 billion won, an increase of 4.3%, supported by new GPUaaS (GPU as a Service) revenue and global revenue from projects such as a Saudi Arabia super application (app) and digital twin solutions.
Naver also announced a new three-year (fiscal years 2025 to 2027) shareholder return plan. Over the next three years, it plans to return 25% to 35% of the average consolidated free cash flow of the previous two years through share repurchases followed by cancellation or through cash dividends.
Meanwhile, starting from the first quarter of this year, Naver will change its revenue breakdown to reflect its core businesses and new business opportunities as follows: Naver Platform (advertising and services), Financial Platform, and Global Challenge (C2C, content, and enterprise).
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