The company reported through regulatory filings Thursday that consolidated revenue for the January to March period climbed to 3.24 trillion won ($2.17 billion), while operating profit edged up 7.2 percent to 541.8 billion won, as heavier infrastructure spending to bolster AI capabilities tempered bottom-line gains.
Naver's platform segment, the company's bread-and-butter search and commerce engine, generated 1.84 trillion won in revenue, up 14.7 percent from a year earlier. Advertising revenue grew 9.3 percent, with the company noting that AI now accounts for more than half of its ad revenue growth through enhanced targeting tools.
Service revenue, driven by Naver Plus Store, its membership program and proprietary logistics network, surged 35.6 percent.
Its financial arm also gained momentum, with Npay transaction volume climbing 23.4 percent year-on-year to 24.2 trillion won, as the platform expanded its presence in offline payments through the Npay Connect terminal.
The standout performer was the global ventures division, where revenue jumped 18.4 percent to 941.6 billion won, powered by a 57.7 percent spike in C2C revenue following the full consolidation of Spanish marketplace Wallapop and steady growth at Poshmark, Kream and Soda.
Enterprise revenue, bolstered by AI, digital twin and Line Works-related projects, rose 18.8 percent.
"Naver is a uniquely positioned platform that integrates search, commerce and payments into a single pipeline — the core competitive edge of the AI agent era," Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon said, adding that the company would pursue its "action-oriented AI" strategy to build a virtuous cycle of user satisfaction and monetization while accelerating global expansion through C2C and sovereign AI offerings.
The results come as Naver deepens its AI pivot on multiple fronts.
In March, CEO Choi held a high-profile meeting with AMD chief Lisa Su at Naver's headquarters to explore collaboration in AI data center infrastructure, signing a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop next-generation GPU infrastructure aimed at expanding their artificial intelligence ecosystems.
Earlier this month, Naver signed a strategic partnership with India's Tata Consultancy Services to jointly develop AI and cloud services, and co-launched a 1 trillion won targeting investment fund with Krafton and Mirae Asset to back AI and fintech startups in India.
Shares of Naver opened at 222,000 won per stock, 0.91 percent higher than the day before.
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