NHN Q1 Operating Profit 29.2 Billion KRW... "Cloud Grows 83%" (Summary)

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] NHN announced on the 13th that it recorded sales of 459.9 billion KRW and an operating profit of 29.2 billion KRW in the first quarter.

This represents an increase of 16.6% and 3% respectively compared to the previous year. The cloud business, which NHN is ambitiously promoting, grew by 83%, driving the strong performance.

By segment, game sales reached 111.6 billion KRW, up 6.6% year-on-year, due to the seasonal peak of web board games and the effect of PC-mobile account linkage.

Payment and advertising sales recorded 181.2 billion KRW, a 19.7% increase from the previous year. This was driven by increased NHN Payco point payments, the order business, and expanded sales of NHN Korea Cyber Payment. In the first quarter, Payco offline payments grew 45% year-on-year, expanding to 15% of total payments.

The commerce segment recorded sales of 77.4 billion KRW, a 21.4% increase year-on-year, due to increased B2B transactions by Acommate and global sales growth following the recovery of the US consumer economy.

The technology segment achieved sales of 52.7 billion KRW, up 44.2% year-on-year, driven by the expansion of NHN's cloud business. In particular, the 'Cloud' segment showed strong growth. First-quarter cloud sales increased 83% year-on-year as the business expanded with new public sector orders.

In March, NHN rebranded its cloud brand to 'NHN Cloud' and challenged the global cloud market. In January, NHN acquired Cloudnexa, a US AWS Premier Partner, establishing a foothold for its global cloud business. NHN also announced plans to achieve annual cloud sales of 1 trillion KRW by 2025.

The content segment recorded 42.6 billion KRW, an 8% increase year-on-year, thanks to the growth of NHN Comico, mainly in North American Pocket Comics.

On the same day, NHN announced plans to list its subsidiary NHN Godo. NHN CEO Woojin Jung explained, "NHN Godo is preparing for listing to enhance competitiveness in cross-commerce business connecting Korea and China," adding, "We are currently proceeding with related procedures such as selecting underwriters."

CEO Jung said, "The first quarter of this year was a period in which we could verify NHN's technological capabilities and experience competitive advantages and scalability through new business opportunities," and added, "NHN will continue its challenges and innovations as a technology-based IT company."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.