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SEOUL, Aug. 7 (Yonhap) -- Naver Corp., South Korea's largest online portal operator, said Friday its second-quarter net profit rose from a year earlier, as artificial intelligence (AI) helped boost its key businesses.

The company's net profit for the April-June period was 704.3 billion won (US$494.8 million), up a strong 41.6 percent from a year earlier, according to Naver's regulatory filing.

The tech giant posted 520.3 billion won in operating profit for the quarter, down 0.2 percent. Revenue rose 16.2 percent to 3.38 trillion won.

Naver attributed the robust quarterly earnings to a sales increase at its core businesses, including commerce and advertisements, powered by AI. Growth of its global consumer-to-consumer platforms, such as Poshmark, gave an extra boost, while operating profit slightly declined due to investments in AI infrastructure, the company said.

By business, Naver's flagship search platform unit saw its sales grow 12.3 percent on-year to 1.9 trillion won.

Sales from its financial platform rose 16 percent on-year to 470.7 billion won, thanks to its rapidly expanding Naver Smart Store.

Its global commerce platforms, such as Poshmark and Wallapop, saw sales rise 24.4 percent to 1.16 trillion won. Sales at its contents division inched up 0.5 percent, while those from Naver's enterprise business grew 21.3 percent on-year.

The IT giant said it is expecting to see new revenues from its AI factory jointly established with U.S. chip giant Nvidia around the early half of next year.

"We plan to create new growth momentum in the AI computing market by securing customers through Nvidia's ecosystem and Naver's existing corporate and public clients," Choi Soo-yeon, the IT firm's chief executive officer (CEO), was quoted as saying in a release.

The company added that it repurchased around 4.9 million shares, worth around 1 trillion won, early this week in a bid to enhance shareholder value.

fairydust@yna.co.kr

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