Korean internet giant NHN Corp (KRX:035420), which includes search engine outfit Naver, gaming division Hangame and Line social messaging service, has announced its financial figures for FY2012.
Sales were $2.2 billion (2.4 trillion KRW), up 12.6 percent year-on-year.
The vast majority of these came from Korean operations; 82 percent.
Net income rose 20.7 percent to $495 million (546 billion KRW).
Everybody's talking
NHN's gaming services, mainly online but also mobile, generated sales of $550 million (608 billion KRW), down 5 percent year-on-year.
NHN develops games inhouse via its Hangame division, while enabling third-parties to release games that integrate Line's social messaging service.
The platform has 105 million users, 43 million of which are in Japan, where it's challenging established players such as DeNA's Mobage, GREE and Mixi.
NHN highlighted the success of its mobile game Fish Island, which generated $5.4 million in four months. NHN is also releasing games on the KakaoTalk network. Similar to Line, the social messaging service has over 50 million users in Korea.
Walk the Line
Indeed, more generally NHN is looking to Line to provide a strong foundation to its various businesses.
Line continues to grow quickly, going from zero users to 100 million in 19 months; more than twice as fast as Twitter or Facebook.
It's also finding success in markets outside Japan, with 13 million users in Thailand, 12 million in Taiwan, and 5 million in Korea and Spain.
16 games have been released on the platform since November, generating over $18 million (20 billion KRW) in sales. NHN's own Line Pop and Line Bubble are top performers.
NHN Corp ended the year with cash and equivalents worth $950 million (1 trillion KRW).
[source: NHN Corp (PDF)]
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A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
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