Good morning. This is Chae-Hun Kang from Investor Relations. Thank you for joining NAVER's 4Q 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Joining our call today, we have CEO, Soo-Yeon Choi , and CFO, Nam-Sun Kim . Please note that the presentation today is based on KIFRS. In order to provide the results in a timely manner, the contents have yet to be audited by an independent auditor, and hence, may be subject to change after such review. First, I will turn it over to the CEO to present the business highlights.
Good morning. This is the CEO, Soo-Yeon Choi . 2022 was a year in which externally the endemic and global economic slowdown led to more uncertainties, while internally the CFO, myself, took office, leading to a lot of changes and growth. From a corporate cultural perspective, we conducted regular assessments on our organization and established a dedicated organization for human rights-based management under the BOD, which will act as the control tower on this topic. We created a foundation for deeper communication and trust building among employees. For our users, we improved search quality by launching Smart Block, Open Talk, and Issue Talk, while continuing efforts to improve services by starting loan comparison services and guaranteed delivery.
In addition, the NAVER AI and B2B business organization announced plans to merge with a focus on NAVER Cloud, indicating a change in growth strategy focused on AI. As a global company, we also strengthened our fundamental for future investment and growth. In the first quarter, NAVER WEBTOON completed a successful merger with ebookjapan, Locus, and Munpia, solidifying its position as the global number 1 story tech platform.
As a result, global GMV ads and the IP business showed balanced growth. This year, with more paying users and better efficient marketing efficiency, which began in the second half of last year, coupled with broad operational efficiency, we will focus on not only the top line, but also improving monetization. The Poshmark acquisition signed in the second half closed this January. This deal represents NAVER's expansion into community commerce, which has high growth potential and also business synergy opportunities with NAVER's core businesses. In the short term, we will be strengthening services that use NAVER technology like Shopping Lens and live commerce. Over the mid to long term, we will explore ways to achieve meaningful performance, such as creating ad synergies that fit with Poshmark's core functions. It will be the first year of numerous business issues and strategy implementation.
With that, let me go over the performance of each core business area. First, let me discuss the search platform business. NAVER is making many efforts to increase user service satisfaction, and in addition, we continue to improve our search quality. By increasing the use of knowledge base, which identifies the user's intention and provides the right answer, and knowledge snippet, which immediately summarizes and shows content body in the research results, we have enhanced user search satisfaction and reliability. In addition, by improving the match and ranking technology algorithm in web search quality in the long tail space improved by more than 15%. In terms of monetization, Smart Block, which provides customized search results categorized by topic keyword searches, was more broadly applied in the local segment, such as local travel and restaurants and in shopping, resulting in business queries increasing 15% from last year's average.
This year, it will be applied to travel, health, and finance to increase Smart Block's coverage in integrated search from the current 20% level to up to 40%, which will create new monetization opportunities. We are also preparing to address new search trends like generative AI, which is in the recent spotlight. NAVER is not only the service provider with the most high-quality search data for Korean, but also Korea's best search technology company, boasting of world-class technology for a hyperscale AI model. We are confident that we will be able to address issues like generative AI's lack of reliability and recency, and the lack of accuracy when overseas company take an English-based developer model and translated it for Korean in a relatively cost-efficient manner by using our vast user data and applying NAVER's technology and also our know-how.
For searches such as Seoul subway fees, which require an answer that summarizes information, we show highly reliable recent content data in summary and with sources. For searches like the cheapest way to buy a laptop, which require recommendations, we will show results that use a wide variety of content. These internal tests to enhance search quality and the user's experience is underway with the goal of releasing within the first half of this year SearchGPT, a NAVER unique upgraded search experience. As a slower global economy and weaker sentiment continues to drag marketing activities, fourth quarter search platform grew 2.03% YoY.
In detail, search ads increased 5% YoY due to initiatives including improvements in ad space exposure and launch of expandable ads, even though more public attention on social issues such as the Itaewon tragedy and the World Cup games had a negative impact. We believe we outperformed the global trends. Due to macro uncertainties, it is difficult to forecast advertiser demand, but we continue to increase business queries in new segments like travel, health, and finance, and to look for a wide variety of options for growth, including new product releases. Place Ads is expanding mostly from restaurants to other areas, including Lifestyle, Health, Medical Services, and Service industry. As of December end, the number of paying advertisers doubled YoY to 99,000, exceeding our target for the year.
From last November, we have started to show ads in Smart Place Home, this year, we expect an increase in offline activity to result in better user indicators and are planning to identify new growth drivers through more advanced ad matching and broadening of search coverage. For display ads, the full impact from a global recession and weaker consumer sentiment leading to less marketing went in play, resulting in fourth quarter revenue dropping 2.9% YoY. Uncertainties may continue this year again, the company is planning to launch new services to strengthen its platform power while also exerting efforts to actively address advertisers' demand and provide competitive ad products. For example, during the World Cup games in December, we tested a new premium product on the mobile search home that received positive response from advertisers.
We plan to look into commercializing this product to actively address evolving client demand. As we acquired new inventory by launching community services like Open Talk and Issue Talk within sports services, we will continue to identify new ways to convert new service traffic into ad avenue in line with quickly changing media trends. Let me go over our Commerce business. Though the e-commerce market slowed slightly due to the endemic and weaker consumer sentiment, Q4 NAVER Commerce GMV maintained strong and was up 13.7% YoY at KRW 11.2 trillion. Of this amount, on-platform GMV, including Smart Store and Kream, was KRW 7.6 trillion, an increase of 13.6% YoY, while service-related GMV, such as travel booking, post-posted KRW 1.3 trillion, which is 2.1 times that of the previous year.
Brand Store GMV grew 59% YoY to KRW 930 billion, and its share of total GMV continues to rise also. As of the fourth quarter, we have a total of 1,333 Brand Stores, of which 146 brands in the areas of fashion, beauty, and daily necessities newly opened this quarter. 2023 will be the first year that the company will fully engage in expanding into the D2C market, which is where Brand Store is. This means not only opening additional new Brand Stores, but starting with NAVER Guaranteed Delivery, releasing a wide variety of CRM and marketing solutions that brands need. In addition, upgrading the brand exploration experience within search will also lock in more brands in NAVER Shopping. NAVER Guaranteed Delivery has entered the stabilization phase at one month from the beta launch.
Things are going smoothly with the number of sellers and GMV growing faster than expected. The Guaranteed Delivery tag enables users to quickly identify quick delivery products and the guaranteed delivery date. Sellers use a single platform that shows all data for the delivery process. By using the s-service, some sellers have enjoyed a marketing boom, resulting in GMV doubling month-over-month. Going forward, we will upgrade the Guaranteed Delivery data platform and exclusive page while continuing to increase the number of categories and sellers. For our Guaranteed Delivery groceries, starting with Homeplus Express at the end of last year, we are providing the one-hour delivery services of major hypermarkets. This is just one example of how we will strengthen the delivery competitiveness of NAVER Shopping across different services.
Kream is expanding into categories outside of sneakers. More sellers in the Brand Store tab drove GMV up 1.9x versus the previous quarter. Kream has become the platform leading new consumer culture with a focus on the Millennial and Gen Z population and is posting high growth in luxury goods also. The take rate since the beginning of the year has been gradually increased. This ensures the sustainability of the platform and improves profitability. As the endemic fully played out in the fourth quarter, outside activity increased, driving total GMV for travel and booking to grow 2.1x YoY to KRW 1.3 trillion, setting another new record. Driven by more alliance partners and seasonal promotions, flights and hotel reservations within travel services, beauty within bookings, and the leisure fun category showed a strong upswing.
Due to the expansion of non-captive affiliated stores and the end-of-the-year shopping season, Q4 NAVER Pay TPV reached KRW 13.2 trillion, an increase of 21% YoY and 6% QoQ. Driven by new mergers such as Watcha and T-money and the boom in shopping and travel booking-related transaction, non-captive TPV recorded KRW 5.1 trillion, up by 38% YoY, leading total TPV growth. Even as the high season for booking services in Q3 ended, an increase in the number of large brands and vertical stores and campus pay zones created within major universities resulted in offline TPV sitting at KRW 680 billion, up 68% year-over-year.
The business and retail loan comparison services launched in last October and November respectively, has shown solid initial performance despite the challenging business environment, where our interest rate hikes have restricted new loan application by borrowers. The retail loan comparison service within 1 month of its release, reached the number 4 position in the industry based on GMV and the number of inquiries showing its high growth potential. Based on accumulated data, we will provide more accurate credit inquiry results and providing differentiated services such as loan care insurance and repayment incentivize events to ensure the sustainability of partnerships, which have been well received by financial institutions and users. Going forward, we plan to continue to expand our financial institution partner network and upgrade our services.
In addition, the NAVER Pay Money Hana Bank affiliated demand deposit and de-debit credit card products launched in November last year, providing interest income and on/off point reward benefits to users and improved payment usability. Within Millennial and Gen Z users accounting for 77% of subscribers, it also enabled us to secure highly loyal customers who represent the main consumers of the future. In the future, we will launch various affiliated financial products to further expand the NAVER Pay ecosystem. Let me talk about Webtoon's Q4 performance. Total GMV grew 4.1% YoY to KRW 403.3 billion, and revenue surged 133.1% YoY. Even when excluding the effect of the accounting treatment change, it was 79.7% YoY, showing faster revenue growth than GMV growth.
In Japan, users have been growing rapidly, fueling the growth in total paying users. The percent of exclusive LINE Manga content continues to grow, driving high quality content supply and demand, and the number of Japan combined paying users increased 25% YoY. The process of integrating eBookJapan and LINE Manga is also going well, with the target of completing by the end of the first half. Thereafter, we are planning to increase original content distribution with an emphasis on original series. In addition, we will apply a wide variety of tools proven in our Korean operations to convert users to paying users, thus focusing on strengthening monetization. This quarter again presented a challenging business environment with the economic slowdown and also endemic.
In the fourth quarter, in light of the macro environment, the company has focused on taking more caution on costs, which we believe led to the solid performance. In 2023, we believe macro uncertainties will persist, NAVER will maintain stable growth in existing businesses and develop new markets to fuel growth momentum while exerting efforts to ensure that we become the most preferred platform by stakeholders once external uncertainties have subsided. Next, our CFO, Nam-Sun Kim, will walk you through the fourth quarter and full year financial performance in more detail.
Good morning. I am the CFO, Nam-Sun Kim. Let me present the Q4 and full year financial performance. Before diving into the details, let me talk about the accounting treatment changes that we have made for WEBTOON. As the contracts for Webtoon creators change, we completed the process of recognizing career revenue on a net basis to a gross revenue basis, which led to a one-time reflection in revenue and cost in the fourth quarter. The number of contracts has increased in which revenue related to IP created by Studio N is recognized according to the rate of progress from the start of production instead of being recognized upon IP delivery. The impact of these changes will be discussed in more detail during the presentation of each business area.
NAVER 4Q revenue was up by 17.9% YoY and 10.4% QoQ at KRW 2,271.7 billion. For the full 2022, in total, revenue grew 20.6% YoY to KRW 8,220.1 billion. Though external uncertainties due to the global slowdown continue, we were still able to achieve solid growth in main businesses, including contents, commerce, and search platform. Q4 consolidated operating profit declined 4.2% YoY, but increased 1.9% QoQ to KRW 336.5 billion. For the full 2022, operating profit decreased 1.6% YoY to KRW 1,304.7 billion. The base effect of stock-based compensation, recognition of year-end bonuses, and one-off content sourcing costs related in the OPM to be 14.8%. Due to efforts to control the pace of hiring and increasing marketing efficiency, 2022 OPM was around 16%.
While excluding the WEBTOON accounting changes, the fourth quarter operating margin was 15.7% and for the full year 2022, 16.2%, so a slightly higher level. 4Q adjusted EBITDA, which excludes volatility like stock-based compensation and asset depreciation, this was up by 0.6% YoY and 4.9% QoQ to record KRW 486.6 billion. When excluding WEBTOON accounting changes, the adjusted EBITDA margin was 22.7%. The adjusted EBITDA margin has increased for four consecutive quarters, which is the result of successful efforts to control price cuttings such as marketing and labor costs. Next, let me discuss our revenue by each business area. If you look at Q4 revenue by business, search platform grew 2.3% both YoY and QoQ to KRW 916.4 billion.
Amid negative impact from the Itaewon tragedy and trends of less marketing spending by advertisers, search ad revenue still grew by 5% on a year-on-year basis. This year, we are planning to achieve top line growth and strengthen business competitiveness by growing business queries and launching new products, including expanding new services. Due to continued global macro contraction and less spending by advertisers, display ad revenue decreased 2.9% YoY. On a QoQ basis, it grew 9.3% due to broadcasting of the World Cup games. Against a challenging macro environment in 2023, we will continue to seek new growth drivers by strengthening our high efficiency product lineup, expanding advertising services, and expanding ad sales to off NAVER domains. Commerce revenue was 486.8 percent billion KRW actually, up 18.3% YoY and 6.2% QoQ.
By sector, commerce ads grew 4.0% YoY and 3.3% QoQ. The impact of global tightening resulted in a weaker YoY display ad revenue. On the other hand, search ads increased 5.8% YoY, maintaining the growth and defending growth. Due to solid GMV growth and stronger contribution of higher take rate segments like Brand Store, travel, and Kream, commission and sales revenue increased 29.4% YoY and 10.4% quarter-over-quarter. This year again, in addition to the increase in contribution and take rate by verticals, contributions from new services such as Guaranteed Delivery, Fashion Town, and Merchant Solutions are expected to lead to commission revenue growth exceeding that of GMV growth.
Subscription revenue from memberships went up 211.7% YoY and 10.4% QoQ on the back of a larger number of subscribers. Subscription revenue and membership related GMV continue to show growth. Fintech revenue posted KRW 319.9 billion, an increase of 8.4% YoY and 8.0% QoQ. Non-captive TPV led the growth in overall market and offline TPV continued growth driven by an increase in new large-scale outlets, an increase in booking payments, and an increase in membership program benefits. In the presentation material, we have added more retail and business loan comparison services, which we launched this close quarter, and NAVER Pay Money Hana Account to our key fintech business areas, further strengthening our lineup.
The Pay Service business still accounts for the lion's share of revenue. By closely integrating digital finance, ads, and content services to the NAVER Pay point ecosystem, we will be able to generate significant synergies. In addition, leveraging the traffic generation capability only NAVER enjoys as a platform, in addition to payment services, we will continue to enhance revenue contribution from high margin value-added services such as ads, product comparison, and commission. Content revenue surged 100% YoY and 40.3% QoQ to KRW 437.5 billion. Webtoon revenue stood for 88% of total content revenue and increased 133% YoY and 42% QoQ. When excluding the accounting change, Webtoon revenue was up 79.7% YoY and was slightly down on a QoQ basis.
Global NAVER WEBTOON GMV totaled KRW 403.3 billion, which is an increase of 4% plus on a YoY basis. Due to an increase in free sales promotions conducted in the previous quarter, it dropped by more than 11% QoQ. Marketing spend was focused on user reactivation and executed strategically. As a result, global paying users continued to grow. In particular, the number of combined paying users in Japan increased 25% YoY, driving total paying user growth. NAVER Cloud revenue increased on a YoY basis 3.9% and 17.1% on a QoQ basis to KRW 111.1 billion. Of that amount, B2B revenue grew 9% YoY, continuing solid growth. The shipment of some Clova devices that have been suspended last year resumed this quarter, resulting in the normalization of Future Tech R&D revenue.
Let me go over the expense items. Development and operation expenses, including labor costs, saw a slower rate of increase YoY as the speed of hiring continued to moderate, while the base effects from stock-based compensation and recognition of year-end bonuses led to the increase of 7.6% QoQ. On the back of World Cup broadcasting fees and changes in WEBTOON accounting treatment, partner expenses were up by 40.7% YoY and 24% QoQ, which were all one-off in nature. Driven by a rise in data center-related depreciation costs and related expenses, infrastructure expense was up by 10.6% YoY and flat QoQ, coming in at KRW 154.2 billion.
Lastly, on slower marketing activities for the content business and continuous efforts behind making commerce and pay rewards more efficient, the uptrend in marketing expenses has slowed, going up to 5.9% YoY, but down 2.8% QoQ to KRW 321.6 billion. Next, let me discuss the P&L by segment. From 2022, NAVER for the first time started disclosing P&L by segment, which has greatly improved our level of disclosure as a company. In 2022, total operating profit was KRW 1,304.7 billion, of which search and commerce combined was KRW 1,789.3 billion, and Fintech was KRW 96.1 billion. However, the content segment saw operating losses of KRW 359.9 billion, while Cloud and others amounted to around KRW 200 billion.
Since taking office in 2022, the CEO and myself have focused on slowing the pace of hiring and increasing marketing efficiency. Thanks to which, despite macro headwinds, we successfully defended against further declines in profitability of NAVER's core businesses such as search, commerce, and Fintech. This year's goal and focus is to maintain margins in core businesses such as Search, Commerce, and Fintech, while growing the absolute size of profit and reducing losses from the Content and Cloud business to a significant amount. Let us take a look at the fourth quarter. Combined segment margin of search platform and commerce was down by 2.4 percentage points quarter-on-quarter to 31.4%. In the fourth quarter, year-end bonus recognition had a relatively greater impact on the search platform and commerce margins, as they contribute the most to the top line.
In 2022, there were some one-off expenses related to the World Cup broadcasting rights, which further drove down QoQ numbers. When excluding the World Cup rights, even though there were some bonuses, combined operating profit margin remained at the 33% level. When eliminating one-off factors, the combined margin of search and commerce was more or less flat on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Following the 3rd quarter, thanks to strategic use of the reward program underpinned by ROI analysis, despite lower marketing spend at commerce revenue, the GMV continues to grow and to be strong. For Fintech margins, a lagging effect in one-off operational expenses last quarter, and also the timing of certain non-regular items such as year-end bonuses and the shift of the weighting average curve towards offline payments in the total payment mix resulted in margins falling by 3.9 percentage points.
Once the one-offs are adjusted for the segment, operating profit margin only marginally fell by 0.8 percentage points, which is similar to that of last year. Once we expand the lineup of digital financial services, including the newly rolled out loan comparison service, and continue to optimize marketing, we expect meaningful improvements to take place over the mid to long term. Driven by marketing and labor cost efficiencies from core businesses like WEBTOON and Snow, content profitability improved, narrowing the loss on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Amid an uncertain external backdrop, WEBTOON in particular significantly scaled down on marketing, but still achieved growth in total paying users. Moving away from just growing the top-line user count, this is the outcome of stronger reactivation-driven marketing that takes profitability into consideration.
We will take the tools that encouraged paying user conversion in Korea to global markets, so as to work towards achieving break-even for the global business. Q4 cloud D2P profit, when excluding the effect of stock-based compensation reversals, saw a slight QoQ improvement due to one-off expense reversals. Despite deteriorating circumstances with heightened uncertainties, we drove efficiencies in marketing and labor cost following the efforts during the third quarter and reported a 2022 full year margin of 16%. Consolidated net profit was down 49% QoQ at KRW 122.6 billion, largely due to a decline in non-operating income following higher QoQ valuation losses from PVLP on financial products.
Q4 free cash flow was up by KRW 349 billion QoQ, reporting KRW 271.3 billion due to higher adjusted EBITDA and less income tax paid than the previous quarter. Lastly, a new shareholder return plan, which is incorporating different external drivers and our mid to long term business plan, is upcoming, and we will announce it once the details are finalized. This ends the presentation on the fourth quarter and we will now start the Q&A session. Thank you.
[Foreign language]
The first question will be presented by Eric Cha from Goldman Sachs.
[Foreign language]
Thank you for taking my question. My first question relates to the SearchGPT, which you mentioned you're planning to release and roll out in the first half of the year. Would like to understand how that new service is going to fit with your existing overall search environment. Is your focus at this point mostly to generate traffic and bring about user engagement, or do you think that this product will also have a positive financial impact? I would like to understand what the company's long term vision is with regards to SearchGPT. Second question, I see that the company has put in a lot of efforts to bring about cost efficiencies. As you go through this quarter, would like to understand what impact it had on your top line revenue.
Would like to gain your insight as to what this cost effort had, what kind of an impact it had on your growth. Has that given you any signal for potential changes in your future, efficiency related plans? For example, I see that for your content business you are able to reduce the loss, but at the same time the overall transaction level had also slowed. It is from that background I'm asking you this question.
[Foreign language]
Relating to your first question, this is the CEO. I will respond to that question. Rather than taking SearchGPT at this point and applying that directly to the outcome of the search, what we're doing is we're providing a venue for experiment and beta phase, really thinking deep and hard together with our user base in really improving the past limitations that we've seen when it came to generative AI in terms of lack of, for instance, reliability and recency. Once we are able to reach a certain level of user satisfaction, and once we build up ample amount of data, we will then review possibility of adding this element to the final outcome of the search for information provision purposes.
[Foreign language]
At this point in time, our objective is not necessarily focused on driving the overall traffic or improving the user engagement. I think it would be more appropriate for you to view it as part of our R&D effort with respect to this new and upcoming search technology. As you know, globally, ChatGPT is receiving a lot of interest and spotlight. It is from that sense that we are also very closely reviewing the potential impact it will have on the overall search market. At this point, we still need more improvement in terms of improving the reliability as well as recency of this technology. Also there are many aspects to be revisited in respect to improving cost efficiency.
[Foreign language]
Having said that, NAVER already has built an HyperCLOVA. This is a hyperscale AI model, which we continue to evolve, underpinned by which we will be able to diversify and further develop B2B solutions on a paying platform. We have at this point cloud supported AI Call, a CareCall, as well as other slew of products, which we believe with the adoption of GPT we will be able to further monetize.
[Foreign lanuage]
This is CFO. Responding to your question about marketing expense. Marketing expense is comprised of two key elements, first being commerce and fintech. These are expenses for building royalty-based points. Second is on the content segment used for user acquisition.
[Foreign language]
With regards to the first element, we did not make changes or modifications to the core, which is the royalty system itself. What we did is we made more efficient the point program, the ones that actually surround the royalty system, the one of point programs. We believe that this did not impact the core revenue growth feature.
[Foreign language]
Regarding content, the marketing spend for user acquisition, this is something that impacts the long-term user growth trend, not necessarily impacting or bringing down the revenue.
[Foreign language]
Not the revenue side, but if you look at the ups and downs of the fluctuation on the GMV, this is attributable to the fact that in the previous quarter, Q3, we actually expanded on the free promotion of freely giving out the coins. This actually, the figure that you see is not necessarily that in Q4 we've seen a significant drop. It's just that Q3, the base effect, the GMV was high.
[Foreign language]
Having said that, user acquisition cost does have a mid to long-term growth impact. We will not just look at this from just bringing or maximizing cost efficiency, but also consider the strategic aspect so that we could appropriately leverage it for growth going forward.
[Foreign language]
The next question will be presented by Jin Goo Kim from Kiwoom Securities .
[Foreign language]
I have two questions. First, I would like to get some understanding as to the AI cloud and solution-based products that you're currently utilizing in your new building 1784. What is the potential for its commercialization going forward? Also, what potential synergies can we expect with in relation to your commerce business and Metaverse business? Also for your expanding your commerce solution products and business going forward, what are your detailed strategies for the domestic market, Japan, and with regards to Poshmark? Also can you share with us when and whether it is possible for you to further disclose some of the key pillars like and the indicators like the GMV numbers, sellers and KPIs? Would you be able to disclose that going forward? If so, when?
[Foreign language]
Relating to many different attempts that we are introducing at our new building 1784 in relation to, or together with NAVER LABS, Clova and our cloud solutions, these are at its infant stage. We are at the experimental phase, if I may put it that way. Also some of the discussions that we are engaging with with regards to NEOM City project is to really leverage the future technologies of robotics, digital twin, AR, AI, and collaborating together with the construction companies in relation to the smart buildings or smart city solutions to which we provide the relevant solutions. It is too early to share with you details regarding the business model. However, in Saudi Arabia and in Japan, I understand that we are in the RFI phase, which signals the start of the commercialization.
When we think about the smart building and smart city project, if we are able to provide and integrate the solutions that NAVER provides, then I believe that that will be an opportunity for us to very closely provide and penetrate into the offline area, underpinned by the strength that we have on online with regards to commerce and Metaverse, et cetera.
][Foreign language]
For the commerce solutions, we have different strategies for domestic Japan and Poshmark. Smart Store platform, we already have been able to gain competitiveness in the domestic market, under which we through the Merchant Solution Centers, we have been already acquiring a number of subscribers. Starting beginning of 2023, we will consecutively open the payment solutions, the payment solution feature.
[Foreign language]
Looking at the situation in Japan, basically, the search as well as Smart Search advertisement and Smart Store, we have been able to introduce these different features. If you look at Japan starting last year, last year, we applied the shopping search to Yahoo! Shopping last year, and this year we will be adding the shopping search advertisement on Yahoo! Shopping for Japan. In terms of My Smart Store, currently the operational entity has been transferred to Yahoo! JAPAN, and once all of these three elements become successful, we will be able to look forward to monetization from shopping search ad and also, we will be able to provide marketing solutions on the My Smart Store.
[Foreign language]
Poshmark, because it is a C2C service, the business model itself will be different, but it already enjoys quite high level of take rate at 15%. At this point, our focus is to increase the activity level related measures such as in expanding the user base and migrating and transitioning the sellers. In so doing, we will be able to introduce and apply our marketing solutions such as live shopping and shopping lens, really embed that into the Poshmark platform, through which we wish to further expand the C2C business.
[ Foreign language]
Under these strategies, we will be implementing different activities, and we will consecutively be able to also disclose the GMV and sellers as we go forward. Once we reach that time, we will communicate that with the investors .
[ Foreign language]. 다음으로 질문해 주실 분은 JPMorgan의 Stanley Yang입니다.
The next question will be presented by Stanley Yang from JPMorgan.
[Foreign language]. 네, 안녕하세요. 저 두 가지 질문드리겠습니다. 첫 번째 질문은 2023년도 올해 그 매출 성장 및 영업이익률 그 가이던스에 대해서 좀 설명해 주셨으면 감사하겠습니다. 그리고 이제 2023년 영업이익률에 있어서 그 Poshmark를 포함시킬 경우와 포함하지 않을 경우에 대해서 또 말씀해 주실 수 있으시면 감사하겠습니다. 두 번째 질문은 그 작년부터 그 추진된 그 이커머스 수수료 인상 전략에 따른 그 매출 증가가 있었는데요. 작년에 어느 정도였는지 궁금하고요. 올해 또 그 매출 증가율 거가 더 커지는지 그 부분이 궁금합니다. 그리고 이제 그, 이 경제 환경에 따라서 어떤 수수료 인상 속도가 조절이 또 필요할 수 있는지 그런 말씀을 또 해주시면 감사하겠습니다. 이상입니다.
I would like to ask two questions. First, can you provide some color on your guidance for 2023 in regards to revenue growth and OP margin and also 2023 OP margin, including Poshmark and excluding Poshmark basis? Second question is, you've been putting in a lot of efforts to further increase your take rate for the e-commerce business, and that had an impact on driving the overall revenue. Would like to understand the extent of that impact. Also for this year, do you also foresee a big impact in terms of driving higher revenue? Would it be necessary for you to be mindful of the overall macro environment and moderate the speed of such increase?
[Foreign language]. 첫 번째 질문에 대해서 답변을 드리겠습니다. 사실 글로벌 검색 그리고 광고 회사들도 지금 더 이상 가이던스를 제시 못하고 있을 정도로 굉장히 불확실한 거시 환경 속에서 저희가 지금 살고 있는데요. 심지어 North America 같은 경우에는 광고 플랫폼들이 지난 한 2 quarters째 역성장을 하고 있습니다. Korea 같은 경우에는 U.S.보다는 내수시장의 어떤 GDP 상승률이 더 그동안 높았기 때문에 NAVER는 그래도 더 높은 성장률을 수정할 수 있었다고 생각하고 있고, 올해 주요 코어 사업의 매출 가이던스는 드릴 수는 없을 것 같은데 저희는 최소한 역성장을 방어하도록 최선을 다하고 있다라는 말씀드리겠습니다.
Responding to your first question, looking at the global peers in search and in the advertisement space, they have been unable to provide guidance for the upcoming period due to a severely uncertain macro backdrop. If you look at North America, advertisement platform companies have been posting negative growth for the past, for the few consecutive quarters. Korea, on the other hand, thanks to a relatively higher GDP growth of the domestic market, NAVER was able to bring about a higher growth than our global peers. Having said that, it would be difficult for me at this time to share with you any specific guidance, but I can tell you that we will do our utmost to make sure that we defend against any negative growth.
[ Foreign language]. 그, 이익률에 대해서 말씀을 드리면, 주요 사업, 특히 검색 광고 사업이 뭐 역성장을 한다든지 그러지 않을 경우에는 사실은 core search하고 commerce 그리고 fintech의 구분 손익률은 지금보다 떨어질 구조적인 이유는 없다고 생각하고 있습니다.
In terms of the OP margin, unless there is a negative growth from the search and ad business, the core businesses, I see that there is no reason for us to be posting negative margins in terms of the segment margins for our core businesses of search, commerce and fintech.
[ Foreign language]. 전체 통합 전사 마진율의 상승 요인은 오히려 저희가 얼마만큼 콘텐츠 그리고 클라우드 사업 부문의 적자를 줄일 수 있느냐에 달려 있고요. 이거는 어떤 정확한 분기 시점을 말씀드리기는 어려운 것 같고, 올해 저희가 열심히 노력을 해서 이 부분들의 적자 폭을 줄여나가면 전사 마진은 따라서 현재보다 올라갈 수밖에 없다고 생각을 하고 있고, 그거를 위해서 최선의 노력을 다하겠습니다.
In terms of the corporate-wide margin level, the levers behind that basically is to what extent we are able to slash the losses that we are experiencing from content and the cloud business. Will be difficult to pinpoint you to a specific quarter, but we will endeavor our best to make sure that we reduce the size of that loss. Once we are able to do that, we will be able to drive up the corporate level margin. To that end, we will do our best.
[ Foreign language]. Poshmark의 영향은 제가 직접 모델링하실 수 있도록 그 정보를 좀 몇 가지를 드리면 Poshmark가 그동안 매출하고 조정 EBITDA, 즉 그 주식 보상 비용을 차감하기 전 EBITDA만 공시를 해왔는데, 작년 마지막 공시 같은 경우에는 2022년도는 결국은 $25 million, 즉 한 뭐 한 KRW 30 billion 정도의 조정 EBITDA, 연간 조정 EBITDA 손실을 기록을 했고, 특히 저희가 인수 계약 체결을 하고, 저희가 사분기 때에는 계속 그 비용 효율화를 Poshmark에 요청을 해서 열심히 노력한 결과 사분기에는, 그 2022년 사분기에는 EBITDA 적자가 $4 million, 즉 한 KRW 5 billion 정도 수준으로 줄어들었습니다.
Regarding Poshmark and its impact so that you could model it yourself, let me just give you some of the figures. If you look at revenue and adjusted EBITDA basis, which is, you know, before taking out the stock-based compensation, that was the figure that we previously disclosed. If you look at 2022, basically the adjusted EBITDA losses amounted to KRW 30 billion and $25 million. After we closed this deals from Q4, we've made the request to Poshmark so that they could really focus on cost efficiency measures. If you look at Q4 figure of 2022, the EBITDA losses were reduced to $4 million, which is KRW 5 billion.
[ Foreign language]. 지금 Q1에 더 많은 비용 효율화의 노력에 따라서는 Poshmark는 현재 저희가 기대하기로는 EBITDA는 흑자를 충분히 Q1에도 달성할 수 있는 상황이고요. 저희는 그 실험을 할지, 그 마케팅 비용은 어떻게 저희가 실험을 해볼지에 대해서는 아직 결정하지 않은 상황에서 저희가 처음에 인수 발표 때 설명드린 것처럼 흑자 전환은 이미 할 수 있는, Q1에 할 수 있는 그런 상황이 되었고요. 저희가 이를 전략적으로 어떻게 진행할지에 대해서는 좀 고민을 해보겠습니다.
Under this backdrop, whether we're going to ask Poshmark to really put in more cost efficiency measures in Q1, we would have to, that would be a strategic decision for us. What we can say is that Poshmark is at a point where it can actually turn around to plus in Q1 in terms of EBITDA. Whether we are going to continue on with the marketing spend related experiments or focusing more on the efficiency side, that is yet to be decided. What I'm trying to say is that as we announced at the beginning of when we announced the acquisition of Poshmark, we can, if we want, turn around in terms of EBITDA positive as of Q1, but that would be a strategic choice for us to make.
[ Foreign language]. 자, 그래서 작년도 일 년 간의 포쉬마크의 삼억 육천만 불의 매출을 계산을 하시고 저희가, 어, 뭐, 에비타를 흑자를 달성하는지 여부에 따라서 모델링을 해보시면 그 네이버 통합 전사에 대한 이익률 영향을 추산하실 수 있으실 것 같습니다.
Taking the past year revenue of KRW 260 million, and depending on whether we turn EBITDA positive or not, you could run your modeling and see an estimate as to what the impact it will have on the NAVER corporate-wide margin.
[ Foreign language]. 다음으로 커머스 테이크 레이트 관련해서 답변을 드리겠는데요. 우선 올해 저희의 전략은 커머스 테이크 레이트를 좀 더 높, 어, 높게 받을 수 있는 라이브 커머스나 뭐, 브랜드 스토어 관련한 머천트 솔루션, 그리고 도착 보장 솔루션과 같은 버티컬 커머스 비중을 더욱 확대하는 데 있었고, 이 서비스를 확대하기 해서 당분간 수수료를 일부 프로모션 하는 등 활동을 하였습니다. 따라서 올해 매, 아, 작년의 매출과 마진에는 그렇게 영향이 작, 그, 크지는 않았는데요. 올해에는 매우 긍정, 아, 올해에는 어느 정도 긍정적인 영향을 줄 것으로 저희는 예상하고 있습니다.
Regarding the take rate, our strategy had been to really focus on expanding the application of our live commerce brand stores or the merchant solutions and the guaranteed delivery, really focusing on each of the verticals. That was our focus in terms of our strategy. We even provided free promotions for these services. That is why last year, in terms of the revenue and margin impact, the impact had not been that significant. We believe that this year we will start to see the positive impact feed in.
[ Foreign language]. 특히 NAVER NAVER Guaranteed Delivery이나 Fashion Town 서비스는 이제 출시한 지 one month 남짓 되었는데요. 초기에 말씀드린 것처럼 판매자와 유저 유입에 집중하였음에도 거래액 자체에도 우상향 추이를 나타내고 있어서 거래액과 저희 수수료 인상 등을 포함해서 매출 증가 효과를 기대하고 있습니다.
One thing to note is that the Guaranteed Delivery and Fashion Town was released only about a month ago, despite the fact that we're just focusing on the seller acquisition and user acquisition. The GMV itself also showed an uptrend and coupled with the increase in the take rate, we are looking forward to higher level of revenue.
경쟁 환경을 고려해서 인상 속도 조절에 대해서도 문의 주셨는데요. 저희는 NAVER가 가장 이런 수수료 인상 속도나 이런 점에 대해서 가장 보수적이고 가장 신중하게 접근하고 있는 회사라고 생각합니다. 경쟁사에 비해서 저희의 수수료는 매우 낮은 상황이기 때문에 또 올릴 여지 역시 충분하게 남은 상태라고 저희는 판단하고 있습니다. 말씀주신 것처럼 경쟁 환경이나 규제 환경 등을 고려해서 수수료 인상에 대해서는 전략적으로 조절을 판단할 예정입니다.
You also asked about the pace of increasing or increasing the take rate. NAVER is a company that is most conservative and most prudent in basically deciding on the pace of that fee increase. Versus our competitors, our fee level is very low and which tells us that we have much more room to go up going forward. We will definitely be mindful of the regulatory as well as the competitive environment and make the strategic decisions with regards to the pace of that increase.
시간관계상 앞으로 한 분의 질문을 더 받도록 하겠습니다.
Due to the time limit, we would like to take the final question.
마지막으로 질문해 주실 분은 메릴린치 증권의 이수진 님입니다.
The next question will be presented by Suji Lee from Merrill Lynch Securities.
[Foreign language]. 예, 질문 기회 감사드립니다. 저는 NAVER Pay 쪽이랑 그다음에 Dochak Bojang 관련해서 좀 추가적인 질문이 있는데요. 첫 번째로 NAVER Pay 포인트 절감에 대해서 좀 여쭙고 싶습니다. 최근에 유저 입장으로 보았을 때 느끼는 건 신용카드로 연동되어 있는 NAVER Pay의 경우, 이제 포인트 저희 페이 포인트로 주시는 부분들이 많이 줄어드는 것 같은데, 반면 충전 결제를 사용할 경우라든가, 특히 이제 Hana Bank bankbook 같은 경우도 출시를 하셨고요. 이런 충전 결제라든가 이런 경우에는 조금 더 페이 포인트를 많이 주시고, 아니면 또 최근에는 Smart Store 판매자가 직접 부담하는 포인트, 이런 것들도 좀 증가하는 것으로 보입니다. 좀 이런 다양한 노력들이 좀 저희 NAVER Pay 포인트 관련해서 마케팅, 어떤 마케팅 비용 절감 효과가 있을 것 같은데요. 저희가 어느 정도 좀 효과적으로 기대를 할 수 있는지 여쭙고 싶습니다.
I would like to ask two questions, first being on NAVER Pay Point, second being on guaranteed delivery. First on NAVER Pay Point, from a user's perspective, if a user uses NAVER Pay and uses the credit card that is connected to NAVER Pay, then basically that user receives less of a reward compared to when they use a top-up point or when they use Hana Bank account, they get more Pay Point. Also we see Smart Store sellers providing that NAVER Pay Point related support. Would like to understand the extent of marketing cost savings, and you're able to drive out of such effort. Second, regarding guaranteed delivery, I would presume that your NFA logistics center, your logistics partners would have to carry certain level of inventory.
That would mean that your logistical partners would have to bear and there would maybe an increase in the related expenses. Does this mean that NAVER Commerce also has to share with that logistical cost? What's the cost impact for NAVER?
[Foreign language]
Regarding the NAVER Pay Point, and different modes of payment that is used in connection with NAVER Pay, basically there are different routes, so it's very difficult to, at this point to provide you with a specific impact in terms of the amount. What we are doing at this point is making assessment from an ROI, quantitative ROI perspective regarding the NAVER Pay Points, and we're in the process of continuing to do optimization.
If you look at this quarter, we were able to significantly reduce the amount of marketing expense rise, and also its mix against the revenue had gone down as well. We will closely observe the responses that we're getting from the market and the overall user base, and we'll make sure that we bring about growth that is underpinned by cost efficiencies.
[Foreign language]
Looking at guaranteed delivery, the structure is such that NAVER basically is going to bear the cost and expenses relating to the usage of the solutions as well as the quick delivery and the registration to, and onboarding our platform. Actually in terms of the use of the warehouses or logistical centers and delivery related costs, it's the logistical partner and the sellers entering into an agreement between and by themselves. Regarding the logistics or warehouse-related costs, even if that goes up for our logistical partner, the structure is not such that we will share that cost.
[Foreign language]
That brings us to the end of the earnings conference call for Q4 of 2022. Thank you very much for joining us this morning, and we look forward to your support going forward. Thank you.