Korea’s largest Web portal Naver saw its net profit rise 22.7 percent on-year during the first three months this year thanks to increased overseas sales.

The Internet giant said that it logged 165 billion won ($144 million) in operating profit. Its sales came in at 937 billion won and its operating profit at 257 billion won. The figures were up by 26.6 percent and 32.1 percent, respectively.


Naver’s robust overseas sales served as a major force behind the improvement in profit and it was mainly driven by mobile messenger Line, according to Naver.

Overseas revenue accounted for 36 percent of the company’s entire sales.

Line Corp., Naver’s wholly-owned subsidiary and the operator of the mobile messenger, posted 34.1 billion Japanese yen ($314.6 million), up 20.9 percent compared to the same period last year.

Naver’s advertising business, which earned 672.7 billion won, accounted for 72 percent of the overall sales, and its content business, which earned 237.4 billion won, took up 25 percent.

Around 60 percent of the entire sales came from mobile-oriented businesses while the rest came from the PC-based businesses.

“Naver will continue to support domestic business partners and content creators as well as improve the user experience of its services to fast adapt to rapidly changing market environment,” Kim Sang-hun, chief executive of Naver, adding the company would devote itself to developing new technologies as well.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)