Naver sees record quarter as shopping, entertainment goes online

Naver pulled off a record quarterly high in sales and an over two-fold increase in net profit in the second quarter as increased online content consumption in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic fueled growth for the internet giant’s wide variety of businesses encompassing e-commerce, webtoons, finance and cloud services.

Naver's net profit reached 90.7 billion won ($76 million) in the April-June period, rising 226.7 percent over a year earlier, the company said in a press release.

Operating profit came at 230.6 billion won during the same period, marking an increase of 79.7 percent from the year before. Sales totaled a quarterly high of 1.9 trillion won, representing a 16.7 percent increase from a year earlier, Naver said.

Revenue from e-commerce and search-based advertising increased 8.6 percent on-year to 777.2 billion won in the second quarter on the back of increased online shopping as more people refrained from going outside amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"Naver was able to show robust growth on the back of increased demand for online shopping, coupled with our efforts to support online sellers to expand their business through various technology and data," CEO Han Seong-sook said during a conference call.

The number of sellers on its shopping platform, Smart Store, surpassed 350,000 in the second quarter. The introduction of its paid membership called Naver Plus, launched in June, helped boost profit, according to the company.

Naver said revenue from its platform business, including messenger Line, surged 16.7 percent on year to 690.8 billion won during the same period.

Revenue from its advertisement business was up 4.9 percent on year to 174.7 billion won in the second quarter.

Revenue from its IT platform business, which covers Naver Pay and cloud computing services, also jumped 70.2 percent on year to 180.2 billion won as more people used Naver's payment system for their shopping.

A total of 13 million active users paid for items through Naver Pay, in June, Naver said. Money transfers through Naver Pay surpassed 6 trillion won in the second quarter, up 56 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Content sales advanced 58.9 percent on year during the cited period to 79.6 billion won due to increased revenues from its webtoons and an increase in global users, it said.

Shares in Naver closed at 294,000 won, up 0.68 percent from the previous session. The second-quarter report was announced before the local market opened Thursday.

BY PARK EUN-JEE, YONHAP [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]