Naver announced on the 9th that it recorded sales of 2.78 trillion won and operating profit of 505.3 billion won in the first quarter, marking increases of 10.3% and 15%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
According to Naver, the sales in each institutional sector were ▲search platform 1.01 trillion won ▲commerce 787.9 billion won ▲fintech 392.7 billion won ▲content 459.3 billion won ▲enterprise 134.2 billion won.
Although sales in the search platform increased by 11.9% compared to the same period last year, it decreased by 4.9% compared to the previous quarter. Naver noted, "As optimization through artificial intelligence (AI) is underway and product boundaries are blurring, overall advertising efficiency and sales growth continue," adding, "From the second quarter, we plan to publish focused on overall Naver platform advertising."
Commerce grew by 12% year-on-year and 1.6% quarter-on-quarter, thanks to the launch of Naver Plus Store, the reorganization of N Delivery, and enhanced membership benefits.
In the first quarter, with the increase in smart store and service transaction values, the on-platform transactions of Naver Commerce increased by 10.1% compared to the same period last year. Commerce advertising revenue reached an all-time high due to the launch of Naver Plus Store, optimization of placements, and enhancement of recommendation ads.
Fintech increased by 11% compared to last year but decreased by 2% compared to the previous quarter. In the first quarter, the payment amount for Naver Pay achieved 19.6 trillion won, a 17.4% increase compared to the same period last year, driven by the growth of smart stores and continuous expansion of the external ecosystem.
Naver Pay announced that it will continue to strengthen its competitiveness in various financial service areas, including the securities simple order service (WTS) launched in April.
Content grew by 2.9% compared to the same period last year, but decreased by 1.7% compared to the previous quarter.
The enterprise institutional sector increased by 14.7% year-on-year due to the expansion of paid IDs for Line Works, but decreased by 24.4% compared to the previous quarter. Naver will rename the existing cloud sector to the enterprise institutional sector starting this quarter, considering the structural characteristics of the business sector.
Choi Soo-young, CEO of Naver, said, "Naver is consolidating its unique content and data, connecting them not only through search but also discovery, exploration, shopping, and places, securing unique platform competitiveness that AI cannot replace," adding, "We will strengthen our capabilities through the gradual change of user experience enhancement and service and advertising technologies."