Naver Corp., South Korea’s leading online portal operator, said Thursday its third-quarter net profit rose 9 percent from a year earlier on lower corporate tax payments.

In the third quarter that ended on Sept. 30, Naver posted a net profit of 216 billion won ($191 million), up from 198 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a statement. 


“In the third quarter of last year, the company paid a hefty corporate tax due to a merger between two affiliates months earlier but in the third quarter of this year, it paid a regular amount of corporate tax. It helped buoy the bottom line,” a company spokesman said by phone.

Strengthened search services on mobile phones and increased mobile payments on its platform also drove up the quarterly results, he said.

Operating profit climbed 11 percent to 312.1 billion won from 282.3 billion won a year ago. Sales jumped 19 percent to 1.2 trillion won from 1.01 trillion won during the same period, the statement said.

The operating profit increase was helped by equity gains from its Japanese affiliate Line, a messaging application service, it said.

There are 220 million users of the Line messaging app service across the world, Naver said, without giving the company‘s ranking in the markets. (Yonhap)