By Yoon Sung-won
Naver said Thursday its operating profit in the fourth quarter grew 30.3 percent from a quarter ago, led by robust growth from its advertisement sales.
The nation’s largest Internet service provider said in its regulatory filing on Thursday that it has posted 196.1 billion won between October and December, compared to 150.6 billion won a year ago. Its sales stood at 750.2 billion won in the same period, up 19.3 percent from last year’s 628.8 billion won.
The company attributed the growth to improved advertisement sales, which added to the continuously favorable performance of its instant mobile messenger service LINE. The messenger service is provided by Naver’s Japan-based affiliate LINE Corp.
The company said the revenue generated from LINE-related businesses was 221.7 billion won in the fourth quarter, rising 61.9 percent from a year ago. Those from advertisement and content sales were estimated at 540.4 billion won and 199.1 billion won, respectively.
By region, the company’s sales broke down to 90 percent from the overseas market and another 10 percent from the domestic market.
“LINE has recorded profits every year and we will continue to support business expansion to generate gains this year, instead of tightening control over expenses,” said Naver Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Hwang In-joon during a conference call after the announcement of the quarterly earnings on Thursday. “The number of users continues to grow and we see the number exceeding 10 million in 13 countries, including Turkey. We also expect extra room for growth in Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, India, South America and the United States.”
The company announced the launch of its mobile payment service dubbed “LINE Pay” in October alongside other mobile services, including LINE Taxi and LINE Music.
“LINE Pay has been released in Japan and the number of subscribers is rising in countries other than Japan, such as Taiwan, Thailand and Korea, by 2-3 percent. So we are conferring with financial institutions and affiliated stores of each country,” he said, stressing that the company is not considering directly entering the financial industry.
“We look to continue growth by 10 percent this year, thanks to the momentum from last year,” Hwang said.