The revenue gap between the leaders and followers of the nation’s top three Web-portal operators appeared to have widened, mainly on account of mobile service performances, according to the latest regulatory filings.

Naver, as the leader, continued its reign, while Daum fell further behind with SK Communications trailing in the red. 

Naver raked in 585.3 billion won ($550.3 million) in revenue in the third quarter, up 31.9 percent on-year and 2.6 percent on-quarter. Operating profit stood at 104.5 billion won and net profit was at 76.2 billion won.

Naver attributes the stellar performance to its free mobile messenger Line.

Line, first launched in 2011, saw its sales surge to 175.8 billion won in the third quarter from 11.2 billion won a year earlier.

The company has plans to attract even more users.

“Line, which currently has 280 million users, is expected to comfortably reach its goal of 300 million subscribers this year,” Hwang In-joon, chief financial officer of the Internet giant, said in an earnings conference call Thursday.

Third-quarter operating profit dropped, however, by 11.8 percent on-year and 24.9 percent on-quarter, mainly on rising marketing costs.

However, analysts said expectations for an IPO would help Naver maintain its growth momentum.

The CFO has said that “issuing the IPO has not been decided yet, but it is one business option.”

Daum Communications, the second-largest Web portal provider, earned 129.7 billion won in third-quarter revenue, up 18.5 percent on-year, the company said Friday. Operating profit and net profit stood at 20.3 billion won and 23.6 billion won, respectively.

The biggest growth came from its search-related advertisement business, which recorded 64.1 billion in sales, up 43.8 percent from a year earlier.

Its goal of 20 to 22 percent growth, however, is unlikely to be achieved due to a decline in demand for online advertising, according to the firm.

With the help of rising popularity of its mobile services including SolMail, SolCalendar and Buzz Launcher abroad, the firm would aggressively increase its presence in global markets, a Daum official said.

“We will invest more than 100 billion won in the mobile business,” Daum CEO Choi Sae-hoon said, announcing next year’s business plans. “The profits will improve over time.”

Meanwhile, SK Communications, operator of Web portal Nate and social network Cyworld, continued its losing streak, recording negative earnings for eighth consecutive months, during the three-month period.

The firm earned 31.9 billion won in revenue, down 35.5 percent year-on-year, while it marked an operating loss of 9.3 billion won and a net loss of 7.6 billion won.

SK Communications was once one of the most promising Internet firms with its SNS service Cyworld, which reportedly has 2.7 million subscribers.

Failure to globalize its service is often pointed to as a reason behind the fall of the once-largest social networking service in Korea.

The firm promised that it would constantly seek new driving forces for growth by introducing new mobile services.

SK Communications CFO Park Yoon-taek said on Friday that the company would “restructure the business portfolio and put more focus on laying the foundation for growth of new mobile businesses.”

He also noted that his firm would step up its efforts to attract global mobile users with its existing mobile services such as Cymera, a smartphone camera application.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)