Naver posted the largest quarterly operating profit and revenue on record in the third quarter this year, powered by artificial intelligence (AI). In particular, quarterly revenue topped 3 trillion won for the first time. The company said the gains came from applying AI to search ads and Naver Shopping.
Naver disclosed on the 5th that third-quarter revenue was 3.1381 trillion won and operating profit was 570.6 billion won, up 15.6% and 8.6%, respectively, from a year earlier. Net profit for the period came to 734.7 billion won, up 38.6% from a year earlier.
The third-quarter results beat brokerage forecasts. According to FnGuide, securities analysts expected Naver to report third-quarter revenue of 3.0426 trillion won and operating profit of 567.6 billion won this year. Those would have been increases of 12.04% and 8.06%, respectively, from a year earlier. Analysts projected net profit in the third quarter this year at 485.6 billion won, down 6.5% from a year earlier.
Revenue by business was as follows: △ Search platform (display and banner, search advertising) 1.0602 trillion won △ Commerce (Naver Shopping) 985.5 billion won △ Fintech (Naver Pay) 433.1 billion won △ Content (webtoons, Snow) 509.3 billion won △ Enterprise 150 billion won.
Among the businesses, commerce, which encompasses Naver Shopping, grew sharply. Thanks to enhanced personalized experiences specialized for discovery and exploration within Naver Plus Store, expansion of N Delivery, and stronger membership benefits, the commerce business posted revenue of 985.5 billion won, up 35.9% from a year earlier. That was a 14.4% increase from the previous quarter. In particular, Smart Store transaction volume rose 12.3% from a year earlier.
Fintech and content also recorded double-digit revenue growth from a year earlier.
Fintech posted revenue of 433.1 billion won, up 12.5% from a year earlier and 5.2% from the previous quarter. Third-quarter Naver Pay payment volume came to 222.7 trillion won, up 21.7% from two years earlier, driven by Smart Store growth and continued expansion of the external ecosystem.
Content, which encompasses the webtoon business, generated revenue of 509.3 billion won, up 10% from a year earlier and 7.4% from the previous quarter, on webtoon growth and an increase in paid subscribers to the camera app.
The search platform, which accounts for the largest share of revenue, recorded sales of 160.2 billion won, up 6.3% from a year earlier and 2.3% from the previous quarter, helped by AI-driven improvements in ad efficiency such as the AI ad solution ADVoost and expansion of feed services. Advertising across the entire Naver platform grew 10.5% from a year earlier and 3.5% from the previous quarter. The company said the home feed's average daily users surpassed 10 million as high-quality user-generated content (UGC) increased and AI personalization recommendations were strengthened.
The enterprise business recorded revenue of 150 billion won, up 3.8% from a year earlier and 13.9% from the previous quarter, driven by new revenue from GPU as a Service (GPUaaS) and an increase in paid Line Works IDs.
Choi Soo-yeon, Naver's CEO, said, "Under the direction of 'On-Service AI,' by focusing on AI-based advancement across services and operations, we were able to confirm results that translated into expanded business opportunities and revenue generation," adding, "In line with the coming AI agent environment, we will expand AI integration into broader areas to enhance our core competitiveness while also working to identify future growth engines for global expansion."