SKorea’s Naver Q4 profit surges 129%

SEOUL: South Korea’s tech giant Naver on Friday posted a 129-percent surge in the fourth-quarter (Q4) net profit, fueled by the strong performance of its fintech (financial technology) and commerce businesses.

One of South Korea’s biggest tech companies, Naver’s myriad services including Google-like maps, financial services similar to Apple Pay, and popular blogs and chat forums are used daily by many Koreans.

In 2022, the company paid roughly $1.2 billion for Poshmark, a US online marketplace for used clothing.

Net profit came to 301.8 billion won ($227.4 million) in October-December, compared with 131.8 billion won the previous year, the firm said in a statement.

Sales for the same period rose 11.7 percent on-year to 2.54 trillion won, while its operating profit for the quarter was up 20.5 percent at 405.5 billion won, it added.

For the whole of 2023, Naver’s net profit amounted to 988.4 billion won, an increase of 46.8 percent from the year before.

The firm said its commerce business was boosted by its social commerce platforms, including Poshmark and Kream, a luxury resale platform.

Its content business, on the other hand, was fueled by the growth of webtoons internet-based comic strips and robust sales of artificial intelligence (AI)-based products on its camera and photo app Snow.

For 2024, “Naver will focus its capabilities on strengthening the competitiveness of core businesses such as search and commerce based on AI and data,” Chief Executive Officer Choi Soo-yeon said.

Last year, North Korea created a fake version of Naver as part of a sophisticated phishing attack designed to harvest personal information, according to Seoul’s spy agency.