[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s top internet portal operator Naver said on July 26 it would make aggressive investments into new business opportunities.

“It’s time for aggressive investments. While maintaining our competitive edge in existing businesses, we hope to find new growth engines,”  said during a conference call to announce the second-quarter earnings.

The internet giant’s second-quarter operating profit dropped 12.1 percent to 250.6 billion won (US$222 million) from a year earlier. It has logged weak earnings for three quarters in a row. 

Naver CEO Han Seong-sook

Net profit, on the other hand, advanced 83.1 percent to 314 billion won, while sales jumped 20.7 percent to 1.36 trillion won.

The company attributed weak earnings to rising costs in research and development, marketing and recruitment of top talent amid fierce global competition.

Han said investing in global talent is the most important investment in the internet business and the company will continue to do so.

He also emphasized investment in contents which can be used on various platforms. 

Naver, which has spent 400 billion won for contents incorporating artificial intelligence and internet of things technology since early last year, plans to invest an additional 600 billion won in the next three years.

“We invested a lot of time and energy to become No. 1 and again to maintain the existing position during transition to the mobile platform. And now there is another challenge to create new products,” CFO Park Sang-jin said.

By Park Ga-young (gypark@hearldcorp.com)