Naver Breaks W3 Trillion Sales Barrier

Korea's leading online portal Naver has become the first dot-com in the country to achieve more than W3 trillion in sales (US$1=W1,207).

Naver in an earnings report Thursday said sales totaled W3.25 trillion last year, while operating profit stood at W762.2 billion. Sales rose 17.9 percent and operating profit 0.5 percent compared to 2014.

During the fourth quarter of last year, Naver achieved sales of W890 billion and operating profit of W203.6 billion, up 19.2 percent and five percent, respectively, compared to the same period of 2014.

Naver owes most of that success to the phenomenal popularity of mobile messaging app Line, especially abroad.

Naver generated overseas sales of W1.83 trillion last year and the biggest contributor was Line, which is used by some 215 million people.