Good morning. This is Jihye Kim of the IR department at NHN. Thank you very much for attending our 2026 Q2 earnings conference call. NHN CEO Ujin Chung, CFO Hyun-Shik Ahn, and CEO of NHN Cloud, Dong-hoon Kim are also present. CEO Ujin Chung will start with a business update, followed by CFO Hyun-Shik Ahn's presentation on financial results before taking your questions.
The earnings announced today have been prepared based on IFRS consolidated financial statements and are subject to change depending on the results of the external auditor's review that is currently underway. Also, I remind you that the conference call contains forward-looking statements and that the company's actual business results may differ materially. Now, CEO Ujin Chung will address some key business topics.
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Good morning. This is NHN CEO Ujin Chung. NHN's Q2 performance was very meaningful as the company's directional focus started to show up as actual profitability improvement. All core businesses, including game, payment, and tech, continued their growth momentum. The stable revenue generated from NHN Cloud's AI GPU business became a main driver of growth, helping NHN set a new record high quarterly revenue and operating profit on a consolidated basis this quarter.
The gains from our business streamlining and cost control initiatives carried out during the past several years have started to show up on our business results starting from Q4 of last year, and this year, our key businesses have started to deliver meaningful performance gains. This Q2 was the first quarter when such progress led to visible earnings improvement, and we will focus on building further growth momentum in the second half. Now, let's look at some achievements and updates of our key lines of business.
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First, the game business. In Q2, both the web board games and Japan mobile games delivered solid performance for another quarter. For web board games, in July, HPT, which is the Hangame Royal Hold'em base offline tournament, successfully held its fourth tournament as the largest offline tournament in Korea, and driving up Hangame user base and brand awareness. This helped total web game revenue increase 15% YoY in Q2. In Japan mobile games, #Compass launched a collaboration with Chainsaw Man and recorded revenue growth of 105% QoQ and 28% YoY in Q2.
NHN will be focusing its new game development resources on the Japanese market, and based on the strategy, we are aiming to launch the new title, Gensou Sekai no Puchipoyon, a joint project between NHN's game division and Japan PlayArt, in time for the winter season. NHN PlayArt is planning to showcase PlayArt's live Japan games and new titles, including the Gensou Sekai no Puchipoyon at the Tokyo Game Show in September.
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Next is payment. NHN KCP continued its growth trend in Q2, supported by acquisition of new large merchants. Total transaction volume reported KRW 17 trillion , which is a 34% YoY growth. The volume of overseas merchants, including the global automotive merchant, increased even faster and now accounts for about 20% of total transaction volume. The onboarding of new merchants, combined with stable growth of existing major merchants, has been reinforcing NHN KCP's market position as Korea's number one payment gateway.
As of end of Q2, NHN KCP had around 30% share of the Korean payment gateway market, which is a 2 percentage point gain on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Its stablecoin business completed PoC with an internal audience based on the main net co-developed with the global blockchain company Avalanche and unveiled the payment and settlement infrastructure in late July at the Stablecoin Demo Day.
The NHN Payco app, linked with a digital wallet, was used for a demo of stablecoin payment in actual consumer use cases, as well as merchant-level processing following the payment and settlement, demonstrating speed of payment and system reliability. NHN KCP will continue to upgrade its infrastructure and payment models based on its existing merchant network and operational capabilities.
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Next is the tech business. The strongest driver of Q2 performance gain has been NHN Cloud's AI GPU business. The Seoul- Yangpyeong region, which started operation in late March, has been providing NVIDIA B200-based GPU as a service from Q2 and generating stable revenue. NHN Cloud's Q2 revenue increased 85% YoY and 49% QoQ.
In May, NHN Cloud launched its AI full stack brand FactoryX, which is an integrated service of GPU infrastructure, operational optimization, and AI agent execution environment, and aims to become the key partner assisting customers' AI transformation beyond simply an infrastructure provider. The Yangpyeong region is currently in talks for new long-term agreements for its remaining capacity, further increasing revenue visibility of the GPU business and supporting upside to the original guidance starting from next year.
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Considering the rapidly growing GPU demand and NHN Cloud's AI infrastructure operational edge, securing data center infrastructure early on will be critical to capturing growth opportunities at the right time. NHN Cloud will secure at least additional 30 MW AI data center capacity by next year and add B300-based cutting edge spec GPU assets in its existing regions to increase its overall AI GPU business.
Also, leveraging its operational expertise as Korea's leading GPU as a service, NHN Cloud is looking into adding new floor space to meet mid- to long-term AI demand and will be ready to expand its infrastructure in sync with its future business growth. That completes the business update, and now CFO Hyun-Shik Ahn will go over Q2 financial results.
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Good morning. This is NHN CFO Hyun-Shik Ahn. I would like to share our 2026 Q2 results. Q2 consolidated revenue was KRW 757.9 billion, which is 25.3% YoY increase and 12.9% QoQ increase. Consolidated operating profit was KRW 57.9 billion, which is 164.1% increase YoY and 120.6% increase QoQ. This is the highest quarterly revenue and operating profit in company history. Particularly noteworthy is the balanced profit structure across all of our key businesses of game, payment, and tech.
We have passed an important turning point where profitability is being driven by strong business fundamentals of all three businesses rather than temporary improvement relying on only some businesses or seasonality.
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To look at our Q2 business results by line of business. First, Q2 game revenue was KRW 139.6 billion, which is 21.5% YoY increase and 9.3% QoQ increase. Mobile game revenue was similar to Q2 due to seasonality, but on a YoY basis increased 17.9% thanks to the strong Royal Hold'em revenue. Japanese mobile game revenue increased 47.2% YoY and 33.6% QoQ, driven by revenue growth of #Compass and Yo-kai Watch: Puni Puni.
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On the payment business, payment revenue was KRW 394 billion, which is 27.3% YoY and 11.1% QoQ growth. NHN KCP recorded another quarter of transaction volume growth and revenue increased 27.5% YoY and 11.2% QoQ. Tech revenue was KRW 159.8 billion, which is 52.9% YoY and 27.1% increase on a QoQ basis. NHN Cloud's revenue increased 85.3% YoY, and NHN Techorus' revenue increased 27% YoY. Other businesses reported revenue of KRW 88 billion, which is 8.8% YoY decrease but a 3.3% QoQ increase.
Revenue decreased on a YoY basis due to discontinuation of certain businesses, such as NHN comico and NHN Dr. Tour, but increased QoQ thanks to sports revenue increasing from NHN LINK and revenue from NHN ACE, which is our ad subsidiary.
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Next is our operating expenses. Q2 operating expense was KRW 700 billion , which is 20.1% increase YoY and 8.5% increase QoQ. Commission expense was KRW 507.3 billion, which is 11.2% QoQ increase, reflecting the increase of payment gateway commissions linked to increased NHN KCP's transaction volume and also the revenue-linked fees and publishing fees increasing tied to #Compass revenue growth. Labor cost was KRW 116 billion, which is 1.6% QoQ increase. Even though consolidated total headcount had decreased, bonuses in certain subsidiaries tied to business performance was reflected.
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Advertisement and marketing was KRW 17.5 billion , which is 25.5% QoQ decrease, reflecting decrease in web board game marketing expenses and the base effect against Q1's Abyssdia marketing expenses. Depreciation was KRW 37 billion , which is 13.3% QoQ increase, including increase in depreciation tied to the use right assets for NHN Cloud's AI GPU government project. Other operating expense was KRW 18.8 billion , up by 23.4% QoQ, including electricity for the NHN Cloud's Yangpyeong region.
Q2 net profit was KRW 29.1 billion, which is up 158.8% YoY, but down by 6.6% QoQ due to base effect against Q1, which had included the FVTPL financial asset disposal gains. This completes the briefing on our 2026 Q2 financial results. Now we will take your questions.
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Now Q&A session will begin. Please press star one, that is star and one, if you have any questions. Questions will be taken according to the order you have pressed the number star one. For cancellation, please press star two, that is star and two on your phone.
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Now Q&A session will begin. Please press star one, that is star and one, if you have any questions. Questions will be taken according to the order you have pressed the number star one. For cancellation, please press star two, that is star and two on your phone.
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The first question will be provided by Jeeeun Lee from KB Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
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I have two questions. The first question regards your cloud business. In Korea, there's many companies that are launching their cloud businesses. How do you differentiate yourself in that aspect? Second question is about your GPU as a service business. You did share your revenue as well as revenue guidance. Can you also give us some feel in terms of margins? I assume that this being a government-supported project, the margins would be quite healthy. Can you give us a bit of sense of the margins from the GPU as a service business?
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I think a key differentiator for us is actually well represented by the new brand that we launched for our AI service, which is FactoryX. That is a brand and a concept that highlights how we have not only the infrastructure expertise, but we'll be providing an overall environment for the customer's AI transformation.
In terms of infrastructure, as you know, we have the cutting edge in operating GPU-based infrastructure, B200-based infrastructure on a liquid cooling basis. Also, in terms of operational ranking, we ranked globally top 20. This is the highest ranking among operators in Korea. We have a strong track record of high reliability GPU infrastructure operation. On top of that platform, we will be providing additional services under the FactoryX brand.
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This is CFO Hyun-Shik Ahn. To follow up on the answer by CEO of NHN Cloud, Dong-hoon Kim, and also answer your question about our margins. I think one of the other differentiation between us and, for example, other global hyperscalers is that our cloud business is focusing more on the shorter horizons.
We want to have a higher cycle time of our businesses so that we're able to do immediate business growth and immediate profitability showing up on our results. So, we want to focus on near-term profitability and margin generation. To answer your question about our GPU as a service business margin, even though we do get to use the GPUs that our government own, so we get the use rights, we are also to bear the operational expenses for using those GPUs.
Actually, if you compare margins between the government supplied or the part of our infrastructure that is off taken by the government versus the side that we operate and sell directly, we actually see better margins on the side that we operate and sell directly versus the government side. It is difficult for us to share margins in detail at this point in time because the overall industry is quite fluid.
As you would know, the IDC prices are also changing from time to time, even though a large part of that is passed through to the off takers. There is fluidity in the market environment. Also strategically, even though, yes, high margins are important, we also emphasize risk management.
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The following question will be presented by Sohye Kim from Hanwha Investment & Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
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I have three questions. First of all, I do notice that the company's cost controlling initiatives are continuing, and we are seeing that visibly on your expense level. Do you expect to have this continuing in the second half? Specifically, can you give us some guidance on the amount of depreciation that you are expecting from the cloud business and overall, second half cost and expense trends?
Second question is about the newly announced regulations against redundant listings. How will that impact the NHN Cloud IPO plans? Can you share some details or give us some color on what you are planning regarding the NHN Cloud IPO? Third question is about possibility of taking on global customers for NHN Cloud services. Do you think that there is possibility of signing on global customers? Can you give us a bit more color there?
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To answer your first question about depreciation. First of all, regarding specifically to the Yangpyeong region, you know that we opened that Yangpyeong region in Q1 even though revenue started to show up from Q2. D epreciation also started to be reflected from Q2. Q3 Yangpyeong region related depreciation, we are expecting to be similar to Q2 in Q3. That said, we have additional plans, for example, of acquiring additional GPUs, or we're considering leasing additional space in IDC. So overall depreciation may change a bit in the second half. But that said, increase in depreciation will be tied to increase in revenue and therefore will not impact the bottom line.
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To answer your question about IPO plans of NHN Cloud. As you know, as you mentioned during the question, recently there were regulations announced that are restrictive of companies IPO-ing separately their subsidiaries. That does impact this situation, and therefore we are currently engaged in discussion with our financial investor, IMM. On the other hand, this is not a matter that is just decided totally between the two companies alone. Consent and agreement from the shareholders are also required, and therefore at this point, it's difficult to give you a definitive answer about IPO plans.
Also, w hen it comes to IPO, the fact of listing itself is important, but also important is getting the right valuation. So even from the valuation perspective, we will be looking for the right timing where the operational profits of the cloud business is at an optimum level as its GPU business grows further.
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Regarding your first question about global customers to our GPU business. Actually, our GPU business is targeting more overseas global customers than Korean domestic customers. So, we are talking, engaged in some global customers. So, we do expect to be able to announce some global customer deals in the near future.
Also, I think in overall GPU business, what's critical is to be able to provide that GPU service quickly when the customer needs it, and we have that capability. In order to further increase that, for example, we're looking into gaining, for example, Japanese data center capacity targeting global customers.
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The following question will be presented by Hyo-jin Lee from Meritz Securities. Please go ahead with your question.
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The first question was that I do notice some on the non-operating side, some financial cost that had been incurred in Q2. Would this be a one off? Can you give us a bit more color into what this was? Second question is related with the NHN Cloud business. Even in Q1, I noticed that your existing cloud business, so that's excluding the new Yangpyeong region, has been increasing in revenue. In Q2, can you divide your revenue increase into what was contributed from the Yangpyeong region and the growth that you're seeing from your existing assets? Also going forward, can you give us a bit more color of how much growth you're expecting from your existing data centers?
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To answer your first question, actually, in terms of our financial gains and losses, this is more of a decrease in our financial gains rather than increase of our financial costs. As you know, this is more of a base effect against Q1 when there were some disposals and disposals related disposal gains and valuation gains that were not continuing in Q2.
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To answer your second question, it is a bit difficult to give you too much detail about the operating profits because it's changing. First of all, the Yangpyeong region, we do have existing long-term contracts, but there are some additional capacity that we are going to be contracting off. So that is one factor. Also, the operating profit of it would depend on how quickly it is signed off or whether it is a short-term contract versus a long-term contract, and whether there is going to be any idle capacity in between.
That is why it is difficult for us to give you detail guidance on operating profit of our Yangpyeong region. That said, we do expect there to be further upside given that overall GPU market is getting stronger versus Q1.
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The following question will be presented by Jinwoo Kim from CGSI. Please go ahead with your question.
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I have two questions. First question, during your script, your presentation, you mentioned that you are seeing all of your key businesses now contributing in operating profit. Would you say that would be what we can assume will continue to happen in further quarters? Do you expect all of your businesses to be contributing to your operating profit going forward?
Second question is about your plans of possibly leasing additional 30 MW of floor space or capacity. Can you give us a picture of how much that is relative to your existing operating capacity versus all of the capacity that you are currently running? How much in proportion would be this 30 MW?
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To answer your first question. Yes, we do expect this trend to continue as far as this year o f our business lines, still there are other businesses reporting operating loss. We are continuing to improve the efficiency, and we are narrowing the size of that loss.
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This is Dong-hoon of NHN Cloud. To answer your question about that 30 MW data center additional capacity we are planning to add on. Of that 30 MW, 20 MW we are planning to lease. 10 MW we are planning to take as our own capacity. Target is to have that capacity online by second half of next year. In terms of capacity, that is similar to the regions that we currently have in Gwangju, Yangpyeong, and Gangneung.
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Currently there are no participants with questions. Please press star one, star and one to give your question.
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Since there are no further questions, we will end the conference call here. If you have further questions, please forward them to our IR team. Thank you.