Pandemic lifts Naver's Q3 sales to all-time high, net profit triples

South Korea’s largest internet portal Naver Corp.’s third-quarter net profit nearly tripled, while its sales rose to a record high, driven by solid growth in its online advertisement and e-commerce business in the pandemic era.

Net profit in the three months to September was 235.3 billion won ($207 million) compared to a profit of 85.3 billion won in the same quarter a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing on Oct. 29.

While operating profit gained 1.8% on year to 291.7 billion won, revenue increased 24% to a record quarterly high of 1.36 trillion won.

Naver’s consolidated results excluded those of its affiliate Line Corp. as the messaging app provider merged with Internet portal Yahoo Japan Corp.

Naver said its strong quarterly results were largely driven by the COVID-19 pandemic-induced rise in online shopping and robust sales in cloud and content businesses.

Revenue from its commerce business increased 41% on year to 285.4 billion won, while sales in its search platform business gained 8.2% to 710.1 billion won.

Revenue in its cloud business soared 66% on year to 76.3 billion amid the work-from-home trend due to the pandemic. Content sales rose 32% to 115 billion won on increased global demand for its webtoons.

NEW BUSINESSES TAKE OFF

“The stellar performance was thanks to solid growth in new businesses such as fintech, contents and cloud,” Naver Chief Executive Han Seong-sook said during a third-quarter results conference call with analysts. “We will continue to enhance our global competitiveness through partnerships with other companies.”

On Tuesday, Naver said it signed a 600 billion won ($531 million) share-swap deal with logistics and entertainment conglomerate CJ to create synergy in their entertainment content and logistics businesses.

Write to Joo-Wan Kim at kjwan@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.