Updated with conference call comments

Naver Corp. continued to perform its best this year, finishing the third quarter with the fresh quarterly highest on flying cross-border business in web comics, metaverse and e-commerce.

The South Korean internet giant on Thursday disclosed that it registered 349.8 billion won ($297.8 million) in operating income for the third quarter ended Sept. 30. The figure, up 4.2 percent from previous quarter and 19.9 percent from a year earlier, is a record high.

Revenue totaled 1.7 trillion won, also a highest-ever figure, after jumping 3.8 percent on quarter and 26.9 percent on year.

Its net profit stood at 322.7 billion won, down 40.3 percent on quarter but up 37.1 percent on year.

On Thursday, Naver shares finished 0.74 percent higher at 410,500 won.

While Naver performed well across the board in the third quarter, it enjoyed exceptionally strong growth in content and e-commerce platform businesses.

The company is witnessing global expansion in various services especially in webtoon and online shopping, said Naver Chief Executive Officer Han Seong-sook.

Contents business has become a key driver for its international growth, generating 184.1 billion won in revenue which was up 27.2 percent on quarter and 60.2 percent on year. Webtoon, servicing web-based cartoons, showed a 79 percent jump in revenue. Snow, Naver’s selfie app operating unit that long suffered loss, saw sales more than double with video messaging app and virtual reality platform Zepeto gaining global traction.

According to Han, the number of monthly webtoon users in Korea has hit record high of 1.4 million while worldwide gross merchandise value (GMV) has topped 100 billion won. She said webtoon’s GMV from global service has jumped 50 percent and projected it to soon outrun that of local service. Moreover, Snow camera app is used by over 200 million users a month and the accumulated user count for Zepeto has reached 240 million.

Naver plans to take Snow and Zepeto public in the long term, said Park Sang-jin, Naver’s chief financial officer in the earnings conference call.

Commerce division, operating online stores and live-streaming shopping services, reported 380.3 billion won in sales, up 4.1 percent on quarter and 33.2 percent on year. GMV at its Brandstores more than tripled from a year earlier with the number of stores expanded to 555. Live-streaming shopping service recorded over 1 million views, resulting in GMV 13 times greater than a year ago.

Naver on Wednesday launched a beta service of its SmartStore, an online shopping platform with stores run by individual vendors, in Japan, according to Han.

Fintech division, overseeing mobile payment app Naver Pay and other fintech services, delivered 241.7 billion won in revenue, up 3.9 percent on quarter and 38.9 percent on year. Naver Pay’s total payment value increased 39 percent on year to 9.8 trillion won, driven by new services such as credit card business under partnership with Hyundai Card.

Cloud business, running cloud computing service and artificial intelligence-based virtual assistance Clova, contributed 96.2 billion won in revenue, up 1.4 percent on quarter and 26.2 percent on year. Clova Note, voice recording service, recorded 1 million downloads.

Search Platform business, representing search engine and online advertisement services, recorded 824.9 billion won in revenue, down 0.1 percent on quarter but up 16.2 percent on year.

In addition to announcing earnings, Naver said it will set up a team to improve the corporate culture and protect employees from workplace violence. The internet giant has been under fire after an employee committed suicide allegedly due to workplace bullying.

By Lim Young-shin and Cho Jeehyun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]