Naver (035420.KS) reported revenue of 3.2411 trillion won ($2.4 billion) and operating profit of 541.8 billion won for the first quarter of 2026, the company said.
First-quarter consolidated revenue rose 16.3% from a year earlier to 3.2411 trillion won, driven by solid performance in core business segments through artificial intelligence (AI) integration and accelerated growth in the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) business. Consolidated operating profit climbed 7.2% year-on-year to 541.8 billion won, reflecting infrastructure investments aimed at securing AI competitiveness.
By business segment, revenue was 1.8398 trillion won for Naver Platform, 459.7 billion won for Financial Platform, and 941.6 billion won for Global Challenge.
Naver Platform revenue reached 1.8398 trillion won, up 14.7% from a year earlier but down 0.6% from the previous quarter. Advertising revenue grew 9.3% year-on-year, with AI contributing more than 50% to revenue growth on the back of enhanced targeting through tools such as ADVoost. Service revenue rose 35.6% year-on-year, led by the commerce ecosystem including Naver Plus Store, Membership and N-Delivery.
Financial Platform revenue came in at 459.7 billion won, up 18.9% year-on-year and 2.5% from the previous quarter. First-quarter Npay transaction volume reached 24.2 trillion won, up 23.4% from a year earlier, supported by Smart Store growth and the continued expansion of external ecosystems. Naver plans to further extend its online competitiveness into offline channels by strengthening the linkage between order, payment and loyalty data accumulated through its integrated offline terminal "Npay Connect" and search and reservation data on Place.
The Global Challenge segment posted revenue of 941.6 billion won, up 18.4% year-on-year and 5.1% from the previous quarter, driven by rapid growth in the C2C business. C2C revenue surged 57.7% year-on-year and 22.9% from the previous quarter, supported by the completed consolidation of Wallapop and steady growth at Poshmark, Kream and Soda. Enterprise business revenue rose 18.8% year-on-year on the back of AI and digital twin-related businesses as well as growth at LINE Works.
"Naver is a unique platform that holds search, commerce and payment infrastructure — the core competitiveness of the AI agent era — as a single flow," said Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver. "We will build a virtuous cycle leading to enhanced user satisfaction and expanded monetization centered on our 'actionable AI' strategy, while continuously identifying opportunities in global challenge areas such as C2C and sovereign AI to accelerate overall revenue growth."
