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This file photo taken Oct. 6, 2020, shows Naver Corp.'s headquarters in Seongnam, south of Seoul. (Yonhap) |
South Korea's top internet portal operator, Naver Corp., said Thursday its net profit jumped more than twofold in 2020 from the previous year on the back of the non-contact trend amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Net profit reached 836.2 billion won ($757.2 million) last year, compared with 396.8 billion won in the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Operating income reached 1.21 trillion won for all of 2020, up 5.2 percent from the year before. Sales reached 5.3 trillion won last year, representing a 21.8 percent increase compared with the year before, Naver said.
For the fourth quarter of last year, Naver reported net profit of 375.3 billion won, up 91.3 percent from a year earlier.
It also posted 323.8 billion won in operating profit for the October-December period, compared with an operating income of 173.4 billion won a year ago. Revenue rose 8.3 percent on-year to 1.51 trillion won.
Revenue from Naver's commerce business in the fourth quarter increased 11 percent on-year to 316.8 billion won thanks to a steady growth of small online sellers.
Naver Corp. said its livestreaming shopping platform, Shopping Live, attributed to the growth.
The company earlier said more than 45 million accumulated views were recorded and 400,000 purchases made on Shopping Live since the platform was launched in July, Naver said.
The company's flagship search platform, which covers its ads business, also grew, with its sales rising 8.5 percent on-year to 770.2 billion won during the cited period.
Revenue from its cloud business added 12.2 percent on-year to 83.6 billion won in the fourth quarter as demand grew amid the remote working trend due to the pandemic.
Content sales rose 20.9 percent to 138.8 billion won over the same period due to increased global demand for its webtoons.
Sales from the fintech sector also expanded 15.6 percent on-year to 201.1 billion won in the cited quarter on the back of growth of its shopping platform, Smart Store. (Yonhap)
