Sales reached 1.49 trillion won! Naver in South Korea is growing steadily

Naver announced on the 29th that its sales and operating profit increased by 1.4991 trillion won and 288.8 billion won, respectively, in the first quarter of this year. Compared with the same period last year, sales increased by 29.8% and operating profit decreased by 1%.

Sales of new businesses such as commerce , fintech , cultural information, and cloud increased by 46.3% over last year, continuing the rapid growth trend.

However, operating expenses increased 40.3% to 1.2 trillion won due to factors such as an increase in stock compensation expenses, which affected profitability.

In addition, the business revenues of each business unit were: search platform 752.7 billion won, commerce 324.4 billion won, fintech 209.5 billion won, cultural information 130.8 billion won, and cloud 81.7 billion won.

Search platform sales increased by 16.8% year-on-year and 2.3% quarter-on-quarter to 752.7 billion won, thanks to the influx of new advertisers, expansion of layouts, and improvement of matching technology. In particular, display advertising sales increased by 46.4% year-on-year as result-based advertising continued to expand .

The business segment's sales increased 40.3% year-on-year and 2.4% year-on-year to 324.4 billion won, driven by continued online conversion and growth in small and medium-sized enterprises .

Fintech's payment growth accelerated through the expansion of external partners , with sales of 209.5 billion won, up 52.2% from the same period last year and 4.2% from the previous quarter, and Naver Pay's payment amount reached 8.4 trillion won, up 56% from the same period last year.

The sales of the Content Division increased by 40.0% year-on-year, of which the sales of webtoon and other businesses increased by 40.0% year-on-year, down 5.9% from the previous quarter , totaling 130.8 billion won. In particular, Webtoon sales increased by 43% year-on-year due to the increase in user loyalty to Webtoon content and the increase in the conversion rate of paying users.

Cloud sales increased 71.1% year-on-year, down 4.5% year-on-year to KRW 81.7 billion, as demand for cloud transformation continued to grow. Cloud platform sales increased 168% year-on-year as sales to the public sector increased 10 times.

However, Naver must provide 10 million won worth of treasury stocks to all employees each year for the next three years , bearing the burden of increased operating expenses due to the increase in stock compensation costs.

In response to related questions, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Park Sang-jin explained, "After the stock price rose, the existing stock compensation expenses are increasing, and this year there are not only stock options but also stock options, so the expenses will increase across the board. Even considering the human resources recruitment and stock compensation expenses, the development and operation expenses are similar to the increase rate of operating income, so it is expected to increase slightly."

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