Naver Corp., South Korea’s top Internet portal operator, said Thursday its first-quarter net decreased 17.9 percent from a year earlier despite its improved sales and operating profit, due to the spin-off of its game business.

Net profit came to 128.9 billion won ($126 million) in the January-March period, compared with 156.9 billion won posted a year earlier, Naver said in a regulatory filing. Revenue gained 23.9 percent to 638 billion won while its operating profit advanced 50.5 percent to 189.8 billion won over the cited period.

The company still suffered a fall in net profit as the figures exclude the performance of NHN Entertainment, an online gaming business arm of Naver that splintered off in August.

Naver’s net profit would have advanced 17.5 percent to 128.9 billion won on-year in the January-March period if not for the spin-off.

Naver attributed its improved sales to robust overseas businesses, which posted a revenue of 181.3 billion won, up 92.6 percent from the previous year, accounting for around 28 percent of its combined sales.

The rising popularity of Naver’s free messenger application Line also gave its earnings a lift, as the company launched a handful of lucrative businesses linked to the service such as advertisements and stickers to be used during a chat.

The Line business saw its revenue reach 145.2 billion won in the first quarter, up 115.7 percent from the previous year, the company said.

Earlier in April, Line broke the 400 million download mark as more overseas users chose the service to connect with one another. The milestone came four months after it had drawn 300 million users in November. Line was launched in June 2011.

Line held more than 10 million users in 10 countries, with South Korea, the United States, Mexico and Malaysia joining the club this year. The app is serviced in 17 different languages.

In 2013, Naver’s net profit came to 1.89 trillion won, up 248 percent from a year earlier. Its revenue and operating profit advanced 28.5 percent and 0.6 percent on-year, respectively, to 2.3 trillion won and 524.1 billion won. (Yonhap)