outh Korea’s top internet firm Naver announced on July 30 that its sales in the second quarter reached an all-time high of 1.9 trillion won ($1.6 billion), up 16.7 percent on-year.

The company’s operating profit increased by 79.7 percent to 230 billion won, while net profit increased twofold logging 90 billion won.

Naver said online shopping transactions helped revenue to grow by 8.6 percent to 772.2 billion won.

The number of small vendors on Naver Smart Store marked a monthly average increase of 33,000 during the April-June period. The total number of small vendors is now 350,000, the company said.

Naver CEO Han Seong-sook said the company would expand its e-commerce business by increasing the number of both private and national brands on its platform. The rising number of paying subscribers is expected to help the growth of its e-commerce business in the future.

Revenue from its IT platform businesses -- including Naver Pay and cloud computing services -- also went up 70.2 percent to 180.2 billion won, backed by the increased transactions on its payment system.

The monthly average number of people who used Naver Pay in the second quarter reached 13 million, with transactions worth 6 trillion won, up 56 percent on-year.

The sales of cloud services posted 141 percent growth. Naver CEO Han said the company’s new hybrid cloud solution Neurocloud would improve revenue in the second half this year.

The sales of content businesses, which consists of an online cartoon service, jumped by 58.9 percent to 79.6 billion won, supported by the increasing number of global users, including those from France and South American nations.

Revenue of the advertisement business advanced by 4.9 percent to 174.7 billion won.

Naver’s messenger service Line and other platforms posted a 16.7 percent rise in revenue at 690.8 billion won.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)