South Korea’s largest Internet portal operator Naver Corp. reported a gain in its first quarter profit, mainly propelled by stellar performance of its overseas businesses led by its Japanese subsidiary Line Corp. and mobile advertisement sales.

The company announced on Thursday that its net profit climbed 22.7 percent year-over-year to 165 billion won ($144.9 million) in the January-March period, while its operating income surged 32.1 percent to 256.8 billion won and its revenue jumped 26.6 percent to 937.3 billion won.

Naver shares on Thursday ended at 659,000 won in Seoul trading, down 0.9 percent from the previous day.

Revenue from its foreign businesses accounted for 36 percent of its total revenue in the quarter, up 3 percentage points from the previous quarter. Its Japanese subsidiary Line posted 34.1 billion yen ($315.5 million) in revenue over the same period, up 20.9 percent from a year ago. A weaker Korean won against the Japanese yen and advertisements on Line helped improve the profitability. The messaging app has remained popular and continued to lure users in Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia, with its total monthly active user (MAU) count exceeding 200 million.

By sector, advertisements made up 72 percent, or 672.7 billion won, of Naver’s total revenue, content sales for 25 percent and others with 3 percent. Its mobile business represented 60 percent of the total revenue while PC business for the rest.

Overseas advertisement revenue grew 69.9 percent on-year in the first quarter, thanks to diversified profit sources such as Line’s Free Coin.

Content sales stood at 237.4 billion won, and mobile revenue made up 91 percent of the content sales. Foreign content sales accounted for 87 percent of the content sales.

Naver expects sales from overseas businesses to continue to increase.

By Lee Gyung-jin

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