DAISHIN SECURITIES forecasted that NAVER will improve its business profitability by launching a separate application and changing its commission policy. It raised its target stock price from the previous 260,000 won to 280,000 won and presented a ‘buy’ investment opinion. On the 5th trading day, NAVER's closing price was 207,500 won.
On the 6th, Lee Ji-eun, a Research Institute analyst at DAISHIN SECURITIES, noted, “NAVER launched the ‘NAVER+ Store’ as a separate app and announced a plan to change the brokerage commission policy scheduled for this June,” adding that “the key point of the brokerage commission policy change is ultimately the increase in commissions and the promotion of advertising product sales.”
This analyst estimated that when the policy change is reflected in June, the average commission rate for NAVER Shopping will be adjusted upward from the current 2% to 2.8%, stating, “As a result, the brokerage revenue for the commerce business in 2025 and 2026 is expected to increase by 240 billion won and 410 billion won, respectively, compared to previous estimates.”
The changed sales commission will impose a commission (1% to 4%, including VAT) on all transactions while applying different rates depending on whether the seller uses marketing (advertising products). This analyst stated, “This is a revenue growth strategy that increases commission rates,” adding that “simultaneously, it also becomes a strategy for growing commerce advertising revenue by reducing the commission rate by 2 percentage points (p) when applying advertising products such as Power Link and Shopping Search Ads, encouraging sellers to utilize advertising products.”
Additionally, the analyst added, “Continuous verification of traffic maintenance between the existing app and the new app is necessary after the separate app launch,” stating that “considering the slowdown in transaction value growth, the strategies for activating the commerce ecosystem, increasing brokerage commission rates, and promoting commerce advertising growth leading to revenue improvement are viewed positively.”
This analyst predicts that while profit is expected to increase due to revenue growth from the increase in brokerage commission rates, marketing expenses for expanding the commerce business will also rise. He stated, “As seen in last year’s fourth quarter (October to December) results, marketing expenses for expanding the commerce business are expected to continue to increase,” adding that “marketing expenses will also be slightly adjusted upward compared to previous levels.”