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Naver tops 3 trillion won in quarterly revenue for first time as commerce, fintech businesses flourish

Published: 05 Nov. 2025, 18:04 Updated: 05 Nov. 2025, 19:53

A picture shows the Naver headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi on Nov. 5. [YONHAP]

Naver surpassed 3 trillion won ($2.1 billion) in quarterly revenue for the first time, driven by strong growth in its commerce and fintech businesses, the company announced on Wednesday.

Naver said it is seeing meaningful results from its “On-Service AI strategy,” which applies AI to both user services and monetization.

The company reported 3.14 trillion won in revenue for the third quarter of this year, a 15.6 percent increase from a year earlier, and 570.6 billion won in operating profit, up 8.6 percent from a year prior. It marked Naver’s highest quarterly revenue.

Growth was broad-based across the company’s major business segments, with search platform bringing in 1.06 trillion won, commerce 985.5 billion won, fintech 433.1 billion won, content 509.3 billion won and enterprise 150 billion won. Commerce posted the strongest growth with a 35.9 percent increase in revenue compared to the same period last year, followed by fintech with a 12.5 percent gain.

“Commerce focused on enhancing personalized recommendations and user experience by leveraging AI and a diverse shopping database,” CEO Choi Soo-yeon said on Wednesday during the company's conference call.

Transaction volume on Naver’s Smart Store platform rose 12.3 percent on year in the third quarter.

Instead of building its own logistics infrastructure, Naver prioritized commission and advertising revenue on its open-market platform — a strategy the company said paid off. Naver introduced new transaction fees in June, applying a 0.9 to 3.6 percent commission on all items sold through its platform. Previously, it had only charged a 1.8 percent fee when a search led directly to a purchase.

“We expanded membership benefits through partnerships with companies like Netflix and Uber, and addressed our logistics and delivery challenges through collaborations with Kurly and the expansion of N Delivery," Choi said.

Search Platform, Naver’s largest revenue driver, grew 6.3 percent on year, continuing a slowdown from double-digit growth in the first quarter to 5.9 percent in the second. Commerce revenue now stands at 93 percent of Search Platform revenue, closing a gap that was once nearly twofold.

To reinvigorate its core business, Naver plans to transition its search services to an AI-based model.

“Our AI-powered ‘AI Briefing,’ launched in March, has extended user dwell time on search results by over 20 percent,” Choi said. “AI is opening up new monetization opportunities for search.”

Naver aims to increase AI Briefing's search share to 20 percent by the end of this year and to launch a conversational “AI Tab” next year. The company also plans to roll out a shopping AI agent in spring next year, followed by specialized AI services for shopping and reservations, and eventually an integrated AI agent that connects external platforms.

A potential merger with Dunamu, operator of cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, could significantly boost Naver’s consolidated earnings by bringing Dunamu under Naver Financial. Naver expects the move to expand its portfolio through new blockchain ventures such as stablecoins.

In the enterprise segment, which saw modest 3.8 percent growth in the third quarter, Naver sees room for future expansion. The company plans to acquire 60,000 GPUs from Nvidia and expand its GPU infrastructure.

“Our total infrastructure investment, including GPUs, will amount to around 1 trillion won this year,” said Naver Chief Financial Officer Kim Hee-cheol. “The GPU investment is not only a forward-looking move but also includes a significant portion tied directly to revenue, such as GPU-as-a-Service offerings for public institutions and private companies. We plan to maintain an aggressive investment stance as long as our financial capacity allows.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY EO HWAN-HEE [[email protected]]