NHN Q2 Earnings Up 48% on Higher Revenue

NHN Corp., the operator of South Korea's largest Internet portal Naver, said Thursday that its second-quarter earnings jumped 48 percent from a year ago on a rise in search revenue and online ads.

Net income came to 92.93 billion won ($91.47 million) in the April-June period, compared with 62.7 billion won a year earlier, NHN said in a regulatory filing.

Sales climbed 44.5 percent to a quarterly record-high of 304.7 billion won in the period and operating profit also gained 45.6 percent to 128.6 billion won, the company said.

Market watchers expect NHN to sustain its momentum throughout the year, as Internet-savvy Koreans spend more time on its Web site to search or play online games, allowing the company to draw more advertisers.

The company said its sales in search services alone climbed 31.1 percent from last year to 151.7 billion won, while sales in online game services jumped 86.8 percent to 93.4 billion won.

NHN's overseas operations have also shown marginal but steady growth. NHN Japan's quarterly sales increased 29.3 percent on-year to 25.3 billion won and its Chinese unit also recorded a 9.8 percent increase in revenue.

Despite stellar earnings, the company has lowered its annual sales target from its initial 1.27 trillion won down to 1.24 trillion, citing an expected economic slowdown for the year.

"We've succeeded in reaching record sales figures thanks to a stable increase in online ads and game service revenues," said Choi Hwi-young, chief executive of NHN.

The company plans to beef up its overseas businesses and introduce new services in the near future, he added.