NCsoft’s Q3 net dives 29% on weak overseas sales



NCsoft Corp., a leading online game developer in South Korea, said Thursday its third-quarter income plunged 29 percent from a year earlier on lower revenues from overseas markets.

Net profit reached 27.88 billion won ($24.92 million) in the July-September period, compared with 39.5 billion won on year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Sales fell 6 percent on-year to 147.6 billion won in the three months, while operating profit slumped 32 percent to 33.79 billion won, it said.

The company said the absence of new game titles, coupled with seasonally low demand, contributed to weaker profit.

Even though revenues from the domestic market edged up from a year earlier, NCsoft’s revenues from North America and Europe nearly halved in the third quarter.

NCsoft is the developer of “Lineage” and “Aion” online games. (Yonhap News)





NHN Q3 net drops 5.3% on higher costs





NHN Corp., South Korea’s biggest Internet portal operator, said Thursday its third-quarter earnings fell 5.3 percent from a year earlier due mainly to higher costs.

Net profit came to 102 billion won ($91.4 million) in the July-September period, compared with 108 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Sales rose 18.3 percent on-year to 528 billion won over the cited period, while operating profit dropped 6.2 percent to 149 billion won.

The operator of the Naver search engine said that the bottom-line drop was attributable to an increase in labor costs.

Naver is a Web portal with a vast array of content including email service, news, online shopping, games, blogs, entertainment and stocks.

NHN said revenue from keyword advertising soared 31 percent from a year earlier to 274 billion won in the third quarter, and display advertising sales for ads on Naver.com also went up 23.2 percent to 70 billion won over the cited period.

Sales at its game business rose 5.3 percent on-year to 156 billion won. (Yonhap News)





Asiana Airlines swings to loss in Q3



Asiana Airlines Inc., South Korea’s No. 2 air carrier, said Thursday it had swung to a loss in the third quarter of this year due largely to higher costs.

Net loss came to 47.4 billion won ($41.8 million) in the July-September period, compared with a profit of 161.7 billion won a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Sales rose 2.1 percent to 1.41 trillion won over the cited period, while operating profit fell 38.7 percent on-year to 152 billion won.

Asiana Airlines said the net loss was attributable to an increase in jet fuel prices and the weak local currency. (Yonhap News)