NHN Reports 14% Increase in Operating Profit to 98.1 Billion KRW Last Year... Balanced Performance Across All Business Sectors

NHN Office Building 'Play Museum' Exterior View

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] NHN recorded a 14.4% increase in operating profit in 2021 compared to the previous year, reaching 98.1 billion KRW, achieving balanced performance across all business sectors.

NHN announced on the 9th that its consolidated sales for the fourth quarter of last year reached 542.6 billion KRW, a 22.0% increase compared to the same period last year. Operating profit was 25.2 billion KRW, up 66.1% year-on-year, and net profit turned positive to 46.5 billion KRW compared to the same period last year.

For the full year 2021, annual sales increased by 17.0% to 1.9204 trillion KRW, operating profit rose 14.4% to 98.1 billion KRW, and net profit reached 130 billion KRW.

Balanced Performance by Sector... Q4 Mobile Game Sales Up 15.6%

Looking at the sales by sector in the fourth quarter, the gaming sector recorded sales of 103 billion KRW, with both mobile games and web board games performing well. This represents a 4.6% increase compared to the same period last year. Mobile game sales grew 15.6% quarter-on-quarter, driven by the new release in December last year, ‘Dragon Quest Keshikesh’, and the success of the ‘Compass’ event in Japan.

The payment and advertising sector achieved sales of 217.8 billion KRW, up 14.1% year-on-year and 4.5% quarter-on-quarter, as Payco and NHN Korea Cyber Payment continued their growth in transaction volume. Payco’s transaction amount in Q4 was approximately 2.1 trillion KRW, with offline transaction volume increasing 79.0% year-on-year, supported by the expansion of Payco Order, meal tickets, and Campus Zone transactions. Both the recharge and payment amounts of the prepaid payment method ‘Payco Points’ more than tripled compared to the same period last year.

The commerce sector achieved sales of 116.6 billion KRW, a 56.3% increase year-on-year and a 51.6% increase quarter-on-quarter, boosted by record-breaking sales during China’s Singles’ Day and seasonal peak effects. NHN Commerce’s subsidiary Acommate’s strong performance in the Chinese market led to a record transaction volume of 4 trillion KRW last year, and NHN Global also set a new record by exceeding 1 billion USD in annual order volume, growing 27% year-on-year.

In the technology sector, both the CSP and MSP businesses grew steadily, driving a 62.4% year-on-year and 15.5% quarter-on-quarter increase in Q4 sales to 66.1 billion KRW. NHN Cloud and NHN DoRey expanded their business scale by leveraging competitiveness in the public sector, while the MSP business centered on Japan’s NHN Techorus also continued its sales growth.

The content sector achieved sales of 51.9 billion KRW, up 16.4% year-on-year and 18.3% quarter-on-quarter, thanks to NHN Bugs’ B2B sales and NHN Ticketlink’s performance ticket sales.

Expanding Game Business This Year... NHN Bigfoot to Become a P&E Specialized Developer

NHN has significantly reorganized its business structure and integrated its game subsidiaries on the 1st of this year to actively expand its game business. Centered on NHN Bigfoot, which integrates three game subsidiaries, the company plans to solidify its leading position in the domestic web board game market and grow as a global P&E (Play and Earn) specialized developer.

To this end, NHN plans to release new P&E games such as the sports prediction game ‘Project WEMIX Sports’, the root shooter genre ‘Project NOW’, the ‘Uparu NFT Project’ utilizing its own intellectual property (IP), and the social casino game ‘Slot Marble’, targeting the global market. The mobile Hold’em game ‘Double A Poker’ will be released within the year to strengthen the web board game lineup and enter the global Hold’em game market.

This year, Payco will continue to expand offline payments and transactions based on ‘Payco Points’, which are showing growth, while diversifying the revenue model of ‘Payco Coupons’, which has become a major source of income. The commerce business plans to further expand its presence in the global B2B commerce market, including China and the United States, through new service launches and expansion of product categories and regions.

Along with this year’s business plans, NHN also announced its shareholder return policy for the next three years. To enhance shareholder value, NHN plans to allocate at least 30% of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) based on separate financial statements of the previous fiscal year for shareholder returns from this year through 2024.

Jung Woo-jin, CEO of NHN, stated, “Last year, NHN achieved active results in all business sectors including gaming, payment, commerce, and technology, expanding its position as a comprehensive IT company not only domestically but also in the global market. In 2022, we will actively discover additional growth engines in each business area, led by the gaming business, to make this year a step forward beyond our previous successes.”

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