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Korea's dominant internet search and portal company, also running e-commerce, fintech, webtoons and cloud/AI services.
Korea's dominant internet search and portal company, also running e-commerce, fintech, webtoons and cloud/AI services.
Advertising on its search and portal pages and commissions from merchants on its shopping platform carry most of the income. Its Webtoon unit listed separately in New York in 2024 with Naver keeping control, and it owns half of A Holdings, the parent of Japan's LY Corp.
In one line: Korea's Google, with a Shopify/PayPal and Webtoon business attached..
Moat: wide (network effects, scale, installed base). Dominant Korean search engine with entrenched user habits, feeding a large ad and commerce ecosystem.
Headquarters: Seongnam, South Korea · Founded: 1999 · Employees: 5,047
Size Naver (035420.KS) is a South Korea Communication Services company (Packaged Software) with a market value of $20.3B, the 20th largest of 495 South Korea companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at ₩190,200 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 9.9%, against +7.5% for the median peer and -24.5% for the South Korea market (cap-weighted) — 3rd lowest of 7 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 14.7% over the last twelve months (peer median +22.9%); the operating margin is 17.3% (peer median 13.7%).
Valuation It trades at 15.5× forward earnings against a peer median of 26.7× (2nd cheapest of 6).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about -1% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +18%, so the hurdle is -18 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 0.7 points below its cost of capital (6.4% WACC).
Credit Naver has 1 bond outstanding ($557M), rated A- by the agencies and trading like BBB at a weighted spread of 120 bp.
Next results Next results expected around 12 Nov 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | ₩13.0T | ₩12.0T | ₩10.7T | ₩9.67T | ₩8.22T |
| Revenue growth | — | +12% | +11% | +18% | — |
| Gross profit | ₩4.66T | ₩2.90T | ₩2.59T | ₩2.01T | ₩1.75T |
| EBITDA | ₩3.08T | ₩2.95T | ₩2.65T | ₩2.07T | ₩1.87T |
| Net income | ₩2.02T | ₩1.95T | ₩1.92T | ₩1.01T | ₩760B |
| Free cash flow | ₩1.46T | ₩1.86T | ₩2.04T | ₩1.36T | ₩753B |
| Capital expenditure | ₩1.81T | ₩1.32T | ₩580B | ₩692B | ₩756B |
| Total debt | ₩5.20T | ₩4.17T | ₩3.80T | ₩4.18T | ₩4.20T |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naver 035420.KS | $20.3B | -10% | +15% | 17% | 15.5× | -0.6% |
| Kakao 035720.KS | $10.5B | -32% | +6% | 11% | 25.6× | -4.8% |
| Alphabet Inc. (Class A) GOOGL | $3.47T | -29% | +22% | 33% | 20.5× | 18.5% |
| Coupang CPNG | $29.2B | -4% | +7% | -3% | 55.9× | n/a |
| Ly Corporation 4689.T | $23.2B | +31% | +8% | 15% | 18.5× | 0.8% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | 035420.KS | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +0.6% | +6.5% | lowest of 7 |
| 6-month return | -9.9% | +7.5% | 3rd lowest of 7 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -37.4% | -23.3% | 3rd lowest of 7 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +14.7% | +22.9% | 2nd lowest of 7 |
| Operating margin | 17.3% | 13.7% | 4th highest of 7 |
| Forward P/E | 15.5× | 26.7× | 2nd cheapest of 6 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | -0.6% | 7.1% | 4th least demanding of 7 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +17.8% | +18.2% | 4th highest of 7 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -18.4 pp | -19.0 pp | 4th least demanding of 7 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -0.7 pp | +21.0 pp | 2nd lowest of 6 |
| EV / EBITDA | 8.2× | 14.9× | 3rd cheapest of 6 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | -1.2× | -1.5× | 2nd most indebted of 6 |
| Bond spread | 120 bp | n/a | — |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naver 035420.KS | South Korea | $20.3B | -10% | +15% | 17% | 15.5× | -0.6% | +17.8% |
| Konami 9766.T | Japan | $23.5B | +45% | +25% | 33% | 25.7× | -1.5% | +12.6% |
| Roku ROKU | United States | $23.9B | +24% | +21% | 8% | 39.1× | 39.6% | +21.6% |
| Roblox RBLX | United States | $35.3B | +18% | +32% | -20% | n/a | 15.7% | +39.6% |
| Take-Two Interactive TTWO | United States | $40.2B | -3% | +15% | -1% | 26.7× | 44.7% | +14.6% |
| Krafton 259960.KS | South Korea | $6.94B | -17% | +55% | 30% | 12.4× | -18.5% | +14.8% |
| Trade Desk (The) TTD | United States | $6.11B | -44% | +12% | 20% | 121.4× | -5.8% | +28.2% |
Naver has 1 bond outstanding with $557M face value. The agencies rate it A-; its bonds trade like BBB. Weighted yield 4.29%, a spread of 120 bp over government bonds.