South Korea’s leading Internet portal operator Naver Corp. reported on Thursday that its operating profit for the third quarter ended September rose 10.6 percent on year to 312.1 billion won ($277 million) thanks to robust sales from the mobile ad and shopping platform and sound earnings of its mobile messenger app unit Line Corp.

Naver said in a regulatory filing that its revenue grew 18.5 percent on a consolidated basis from a year ago and 6.3 percent from the previous quarter to 1.2 trillion won, exceeding 1 trillion for five consecutive years. Operating income climbed 10.6 percent on year and 9.4 percent on quarter. Net income amounted to 215.8 billion won, up 9 percent on year and 25.9 percent on quarter.

Boosted by the solid third-quarter performance, shares of Naver rose 5 percent to 844,000 won as of 2:00 p.m. on Thursday.

Naver plans to invest heavily in its business platform where small business owners sell or advertise their products and services, according to Han Seong-sook, Naver’s chief executive. “We will focus on supporting small businesses to help them sell their products at Store Farm and take reservations through our platform,” she said in a conference call. “We will work hard to allow more small businesses to use our technology platform.”

Its business platform supporting Naver Shopping, Naver Search and Naver Booking generates profits through search ads and commissions. It took the largest share of 46 percent of the firm’s consolidated revenue of 1.2 trillion won in the third quarter.

Its advertisement business raked in sales of 114.2 billion won, up 16.1 percent on year thanks to improved mobile ad service and new products. It, however, fell 3 percent from the previous quarter due to low seasonal demands.

Revenue from its business platform grew 18.7 percent from the previous year and 5.4 percent from the second quarter to 548.6 billion won, driven by strengthened mobile search engine and new products.

Sales from its IT platform business soared 90.1 percent on year and 18.6 percent on quarter, helped by surging transactions of its mobile payment service Naver Pay.

Contents service sector generated 26.7 billion won in revenue, up 18.8 percent from a year earlier and 9.5 percent from the previous quarter. The gain was driven by rising demand in webtoon service and growth of its online broadcasting service V Live.

By Oh Chan-jong and Choi Mira

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