January 30, 2015 09:50
Korea's largest search portal Naver posted higher-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter of last year.
The company on Thursday said it saw sales of W750.2 billion (US$1=W1,093) and an operating profit of W196.1 billion in the fourth quarter, up 19.3 percent and 30.3 percent on-year.
Its annual sales grew 22.3 percent last year to W2.76 trillion, while operating profit rose 50.1 percent to W760.5 billion.
The messaging app Line, whose users are growing in Japan and Southeast Asia, was attributed to the unexpected growth.
Line posted sales of W221.7 billion during the October to December period, up 61.9 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 30 percent of Naver's gross sales. As sales of games and characters via the messaging app increased, its fourth-quarter content sales jumped 51.2 percent on-year to W199.1 billion.
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