Naver, Korea's largest search portal and parent company of the popular LINE messeging application, has sustained double-digit growth in the third quarter of this year The primary reason for this is strong revenue growth in overseas markets. The company posted sales of around $700 million for the third quarter of this year, up 22.3% on the same period last year. Operating profit for the quarter is estimated at around $188 million, also up an impressive 88% on last year.

Naver is owing its recent success to its messenger service LINE, which was developed in Japan and has gained global appeal, particularly in Japan, South East Asia and Latin American countries. Naver’s global sales amounted to 230.8 billion won in the third quarter, up 52% from a year ago. This figure represents 33% of the ompany's total sales. At home things have not looked so pretty, with domestic sales dipping by 2.5%, to around $465 million. This is likely the result of competition from Google, which has been gaining traction in Korea recently. Google's Ad business in particuar is beggining to affect market leader, Naver.

Naver's advertising revenue stood at $495 million in Q3, followed by contents revenue with around $190 million and other revenue with around $10 million. Line-related sales jumped 57.1% on the same period last year to $205 million.

Edited from original on Hankyung

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