This is Yasuda, CFO of GMO Internet Group. Thank you very much for joining us today for GMO Internet Group's fiscal 2025 third quarter earnings call. As our fiscal year ends in December, I will provide explanation for the results of July to September period. The agenda for today is as shown here. I will cover strategic highlights and summary and our security, AI, and robotics initiatives as key topics, followed by our Group Executive Officer and General Manager of the Group Financial Department, Inagaki, to provide further details. Now, I will present the strategic highlights and summary. There are three key points I will discuss today. The first is about our long-term vision. We are aiming to become a corporate group that will continue to thrive over the next century by thoroughly implementing a long-term management.
In January this year, we transitioned to a position that is like a holdings company. At the same time, newly reorganized GMO Internet, Inc. inheriting our original infrastructure business has started with a new structure. In September, GMO Commerce became listed in growth market anew. In October, GMO Product Platform, and GMO TECH Holdings, started with a new structure. The second topic is our performance. In Q3, both net sales and OP increased, with OP reaching JPY 14.7 billion. Infrastructure drove growth, renewing its record highs for three consecutive quarters. OP exceeded JPY 10 billion. Out of this segment, GMO GPU Cloud business turned profitable on a monthly basis and has entered into a phase to recover investments. For sustainable growth, we believe accumulation of solid recurring revenue is important. From that perspective, we are advancing ahead with recurring revenue, not only in infrastructure segment, but across all segments.
The third point is the growth of security and AI and robotics, our top priority area. Driven by increasing social demands, high growth of Ierae and Flatt in cybersecurity are continuing. The Internet Security for Everyone project, advancing under the slogan, "A safe future for everyone," held the GMO AI & Robotics Conference & Awards 2025 in September. It presented a roadmap for industry, government, academia collaboration centered on humanoids, aiming for the social implementation of cutting-edge technologies. From next year onwards, we will hold the event twice a year, in the spring with a focus on cybersecurity and in the fall with a focus on AI and robotics. Next is about earnings summary. As you can see from the results, we achieved increase in both sales and profits. In particular, OP reached a high level as the infrastructure segment posted record high results for the third consecutive quarter.
These are cumulative results from January to September. We renewed our record highs for both sales and OP. This is the summary by segment. At the right end, we have the management's qualitative evaluation of Q3 along with the previous quarter. Infrastructure was double check. Sales and profits increased, achieving record highs for three straight quarters, with OP exceeding JPY 10 billion for the first time. GMO Payment Gateway and GMO Internet drove overall performance. GMO Internet entered into the investment recovery phase with its GMO GPU Cloud achieving monthly profitability following prior investments. In addition to steady performance in its existing domain, server, and internet connection businesses. We believe we demonstrated the rock-solid stability of our recurring revenue derived from the collective strength of overwhelmingly number one services made up of indispensable products that will not disappear. Next, security was double checks, achieving increase in sales and profits.
Amid growing cyber-attack threats, awareness-raising initiatives under the Internet Security for Everyone project contributed to continuing strong performance in the cybersecurity business. Additionally, our overseas SSL sales, which temporarily declined last year, recovered. Although the size of profit is still small, we are taking action for future growth. Therefore, the double checks. Next, online ad and media was poor. Sales and profits declined. We are continuing to see variance in earnings depending on the company and the product. Our own products, especially stock-type products with high margin, maintained steady performance. On the other hand, flow-type products such as advertising agency services and affiliate advertising are experiencing a decline. Because of that, we are promoting a shift from flow-type to stock-type products. Next, internet finance was a single check. Both sales and profits decreased. This is mainly because our main product, FX, remained soft due to market conditions.
On the other hand, we are continuing with growth of the key KPIs, unique transaction numbers, and margin balance. Next, crypto assets was double checks with increase in sales and profits. Despite the impact of fluctuation in crypto assets market, exchange business remained at a high level. Evaluation was double-checked since the stock-type products are growing rather than because of short-term earnings results. Here is a breakdown of factors affecting YoY changes in sales and OP by segment. On the left, we have sales. On the right is OP. As I mentioned earlier, expansion of infrastructure, security, crypto assets, and incubation contributed to increased sales and profits. On the other hand, in the financial segment, although the impact of provisions recorded in the previous year related to Thai Securities lessened, there was a downward pressure from the market factors. In total, consolidated sales and profits increased.
This is revenue growth ranking within the group. For many of the investors, you might think mainly of infrastructure and security segments when you think of recurring revenue. However, rock-solid recurring revenue is growing not only in infrastructure, but throughout the group. For example, GMO Beauty ranked first, provides GX support for aesthetic medicine and achieved its top position through growth driven by both stock and flow-based revenue models. GMO Coin ranked second, operates a typical flow-based revenue model of crypto assets but has spent several years cultivating staking as a stock-based product. We believe that accumulating assets is critical for sustainable growth, and we hope you can see that these efforts are steadily progressing across the entire group. This is quarterly OP trends excluding VC investments and incubation business. You can see that our group's earnings power based on our solid recurring revenue is growing steadily.
Next, I will talk about the key topics of progress in security and AI and robotics area. I will start with security. I mentioned about this in the last earnings call as well, but I'd like to explain why we established a security business as an independent segment. GMO Internet Group has been working on the penetration and evolution of the internet under our corporate slogan, "Internet for Everyone." The internet now plays a very important role as a social infrastructure. At the same time, threats of cyber attacks are becoming more serious day by day. Ensuring safety has become an urgent issue, and security is now considered one of the foundations that supports the society that is indispensable.
In this context, we have made cybersecurity our most prioritized area and have positioned it as a key component of our medium to long-term strategy to realize a safer future for everyone. Cryptographic security, which provides protection against eavesdropping, tampering, and impersonation. Cybersecurity, which is countermeasures against cyberattacks. Brand security, which offers monitoring and takedown support for impersonation. Our focus is on these three. We are working to further strengthen and develop the security business. These are the three key areas of internet security business. We have the main operating companies, their respective services and products, and key strengths. Let me start with cryptographic security. We offer stock-type products such as digital certificates and electronic signatures based on our strength of technology and operation knowhow as a certificate authority. Next is cybersecurity. The biggest strength we have is the technical skills of the world's strongest group of white hat hackers.
They have won the number one position in cybersecurity conferences inside and outside of Japan. Vulnerability diagnosis and penetration testing are performed by white hat hackers with technical skills. On top of that, services have been developed utilizing their expertise, which is leading to expansion of stock-based products. In brand security, leveraging the strength of IP management knowhow of domain and trademarks, services and products as shown are being offered. This shows full-year revenue of internet security business by segment. As you can see, with cryptographic security as the basis, growth of cybersecurity, which we newly entered into in 2022, is accelerating. As a result, full-year sales of internet security business was nearly JPY 20 billion in fiscal 2024.
Now, I will explain the progress of Internet Security for Everyone project, which we started in February 2025 with a catchphrase of "A Secure Future for Everyone ." This project aims to establish our brand as top-of-mind brand in the security field. The upper part of the page shows our ongoing efforts through continuous products and service offerings. The lower part highlights our efforts through events, including large-scale conferences. We are steadily increasing brand recognition through both product offerings and events. Today, I will introduce a number of cases, starting with dotBrand. In recent years, the emergence of generative AI has led to increasingly sophisticated and elaborate impersonation and phishing scams. We firmly believe that providing peace of mind through anti-phishing measures is essential for enhancing brand value. Domains that are typical are .com and .jp.
We have been using the domain name of gmo.jp for web URLs and email addresses for a long time. We are now shifting from gmo.jp domain to .gmo domain, named group.gmo. For end users who receive emails, they will be able to understand at a glance that the emails sent from .gmo are from authentic email address, enabling us to reduce communication costs significantly. This implies that dotBrand is an ultimate countermeasure against phishing. What is notable is that the application will be accepted for the first time in 14 years, and the next acceptance period is TBD. This means that this is a once in a decade opportunity. Company names shown at the bottom are the ones who have obtained those domains at the last application opportunity 14 years ago. Since we started this offering in May, we have received so many inquiries.
The interest is clearly much higher compared to the last application period. For the application period in spring next year, we will steadily cultivate this as a new pillar of recurring revenue, with high unit price and high retention rates. Next is about GMO AI & Robotics Conference & Awards 2025, one of the largest conferences in Japan. First, I'd like to show a one-minute video.
A once in a lifetime opportunity has arrived in Japan. The key to breaking through the stagnation of the last three decades lies in AI and robotics. GMO AI & Robotics Conference & Awards.
As you have seen, this conference brought together top industry leaders, including a video message from NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Professor Matsuo from the University of Tokyo, and Director Furuta from the Future Robotics Technology Center at Chiba Institute of Technology.
In our CEO Kumagai's presentation, he stated that next year, 2026, will likely be called the year one of humanoids. He emphasized that Japan should lead this greatest technological revolution in human history through a collaboration between industry, government, and academia. At the venue, we presented a roadmap for industry, government, academia collaboration towards social implementation and exhibited operational humanoid robots, allowing attendees to experience cutting-edge technology firsthand. I'd like to talk about GMO AI & Robotics Corporation, GMO AIR in short, which we established last year. GMO AIR is positioned as a trading company of robots, and robot offering service was launched in April this year. The company is not bound by any particular manufacturer. We are able to compare multiple robots and is able to make the optimal proposal for customers, which is our strength as a trading firm.
Conventionally, a few tens of millions of yen were necessary as initial investment to introduce robots as well as securing the professionals. You cannot just buy robots. You need technical skills in order to actually use them. Our service is Japan's first business model that customizes programs according to customers' requests and dispatches them. Furthermore, we will also make use of our group's security knowhow to support safe social implementation. We are currently receiving many inquiries from diverse sectors, such as events and factories. We are steadily accumulating track record.
Finally, I would like to explain how we plan to develop the GMO conference going forward. Starting next year, we intend to hold it twice annually. In spring, the theme will be cybersecurity, and in fall, AI robotics. As one of the largest conferences of its kind in Japan, we will continue sharing the latest developments in the cutting-edge technology. By doing so, we aim to accelerate the social implementation of advanced technologies and create business opportunities. Next, as one of our initiatives in the AI to robotics domain, I would like to introduce our generative AI service, Tenbin AI. Tenbin AI is a service that allows users to submit the same question simultaneously to up to six different GenAI engines and compare the responses. Each GenAI engine has its strengths and weaknesses, and a single engine may not always provide a complete answer.
By comparing responses from multiple engines, users can gain more reliable and accurate insights. To meet corporate needs for operational efficiency, we have launched a service under a monthly subscription model and will develop it as a new pillar of recurring revenue. Lastly, this is an overview of our service offerings centered on our core infrastructure security business. We have provided a wide range of services from foundational areas such as internet connectivity, domains, cloud, and rental servers, to value-added areas such as payment services and online store support. Each of these services is a market leader, and the synergy among them have enabled sustainable growth. Security is becoming the key driver that will further accelerate this growth. By achieving strong differentiation in the security domain and strengthening integration between security and all of our services, we will expand indispensable enduring value and reinforce sustainable growth.
Please look forward to it. From here, Group Executive Officer and Head of Finance, Ms. Inagaki, will continue the presentation. Thank you very much.
I am Inagaki, in charge of group finance. Thank you for joining us. Now, I will explain the performance by segment and our shareholders' returns. First, an overview of the group. Here's the lineup of our main products. All of them are developed and operated in-house. In addition to Tenbin AI, we are also advancing new services for the AI industry. The combined customer base for infrastructure, security, finance, and crypto assets exceeds 18 million. Here's the quarterly trend in the net sales by segment. Dark blue infrastructure segment overlaid with the green security segment derives a large portion of its revenue from a highly predictable and sustainable recurring income. Both continue to grow along with our expanding customer base.
As mentioned earlier, recurring rock-solid service models are also increasing outside infrastructure and security. The volume of information and transactions on the internet is expected to continue increasing. By further reinforcing our recurring revenue foundation, we will secure even more sustainable growth. Here's the quarterly trend in operating profit by segment. As you can see, we continue to pursue overall sustainable growth by combining rock-solid recurring revenue in infrastructure and security with high-profit flow type businesses such as finance and crypto assets. This approach remains unchanged. Next, the status of each business segment. First, the quarterly net sales of the internet infrastructure business and its breakdown. Infrastructure sales reached a record high, driven by the accumulation of stable recurring revenue. The payment business offered through GMO Payment Gateway, shown in light blue, continues to expand steadily.
The cloud and rental server businesses shown in dark blue, such as GMO GPU Cloud at GMO Internet and CloudCREW byGMO at GMO GlobalSign Holdings, also performed strongly, supported by enterprise demand. Here's the quarterly trend in operating profit. We achieved a record operating profit for the third consecutive quarter, surpassing JPY 10 billion for the first time. In addition to steady growth in the payment services, contributions from GMO Internet increased. Existing business such as domain, cloud, and rental servers, and internet connectivity performed steadily, while GMO GPU Cloud, previously in an investment-first phase, achieved monthly profitability and entered the investment recovery phase. These were the primary drivers.
Next, an update on GMO GPU Cloud, a strategic product of GMO Internet. The service launched last November, and after an investment-first phase, achieved monthly profitability as utilization increased. The sales progress towards a full operation in the fourth quarter is going smoothly.
As previously announced, we plan to offer servers equipped with the B300 within this year. Here are some examples of companies that have adopted GMO GPU Cloud. Today, we announced that Sakana AI, one of Japan's fastest-growing unicorns gaining international attention, has adopted GMO GPU Cloud as its next-generation AI development platform. GMO GPU Cloud was built with a strong focus on performance. Thanks to its technical advantages, it is being adapted across a wide range of fields. Lastly, an infrastructure-related topic. Let me introduce GMO Commerce, newly listed on the growth market in September. It belongs to the e-commerce support segment. GMO Commerce provides a digital marketing platform for chain-type brick-and-mortar stores with a mission to become the marketing platform for everyone. Through the services shown here, it helps maximize customer acquisition efficiency and enhance customer experience.
Its strengths lie in the know-how and data accumulated since the early days of social media. About 70% of its revenue comes from recurring revenue, along with the transaction revenue based on the ad delivery volume and usage, enabling stable recurring growth. Going forward, it aims to drive further growth through AI-powered, personalized ad delivery tailored to end user preferences. Please look forward to it. Next, the network security business. Here's a quarterly trend in the net sales and its breakdown. Please focus on the area in emerald green, which represents cybersecurity. Flatt Security and GMO Cybersecurity by Ierae continue to deliver strong growth, while the number of projects is increasing. Strong demand for high-value penetration testing has been a key driver. In crypto security, strategic products such as GMO Sign perform well and overall SSL sales recovered compared with the same period last year.
Here is a quarterly trend in operating profit. As you can see, the profit increased year-on-year, returned to profitability. As noted earlier, the primary factor was a recovery in crypto security. Meanwhile, cybersecurity continues to show strong revenue and in growth profit, while we also pursue strategic investments for future growth, including hiring engineers and strengthening SaaS products. We view these as essential investments to achieve a safe future for all and to support sustainable growth. Here is a quarterly trend in the revenue for the advertising in the media segment and its breakdown. Revenue declined year-on-year. In the light blue area, internet advertising, particularly flow-type products such as agency services and affiliated advertising, remain soft. In agency services especially, we are seeing the effect of structural changes in the market, such as advertiser internalizing operations and engaging directly with the major platforms.
However, we have seen some modest recovery since the second quarter. Meanwhile, our in-house products, especially high-margin recurring products, continue to perform steadily. Here is a quarterly trend in operating profit. Although high-margin recurring products grew, the decline in flow-type businesses led to a lower profit. Next, the finance segment. As shown, the quarterly results decline in both revenue and profit. The size of the decline reflects allowance expenses recorded in the Thai securities business last year. Here is the trend in revenue by product. Both FX and CFD revenues decreased. This was driven by the market factors rather than the company's specific issues, mainly low volatility and reduced trading activity. This chart shows the relationship between FX revenue and FX trading volume. FX performed well through the second quarter, but volatility, especially in U.S. dollars and Japanese yen decreased and trading volume declined.
While revenue remains in line with the trading volume, we are being affected by the significant decline in OTC FX trading volume across the market. Meanwhile, the customer base continues to grow steadily. At GMO Financial Holdings, we are currently focusing on the margin deposit balance and the number of active users as key KPIs. As shown in the bar chart on the left, the margin deposit balance reached a record high for the second consecutive quarter. The line graph on the right shows the number of FX traders active users has risen steadily since our policy shift at the end of 2022, accounting for around 15%. Both indicators show that the number of customers increasing, placing us in a strong position to capture revenue once trading activity recovers. Next, the crypto asset segment. Here are the quarterly results. Revenue and profit increased year-on-year.
Despite market volatility affecting crypto asset conditions, trading volume and revenue in the exchange business remain at a high level. Within this segment, we are also strengthening recurring revenue products such as staking and crypto lending. We began offering staking in 2021. Quarterly revenue remained modest at around JPY 100 million, but it has doubled from the same period last year and continues to grow steadily. We aim to continue expanding by increasing customer deposits. Next, I would like to explain GMO Aozora Net Bank, a key initiative in our group growth strategy. GMO Aozora Net Bank is an equity method affiliate, and 50% of its profit is reflected in our consolidated results. Here are the quarterly performance trends. The bank achieved higher revenue and a return to profitability compared with the previous year. It contributed to improvements in consolidated ordinary income.
The primary factors were growth in transaction revenue, such as transfer fees, supported by steady increases in corporate account openings, as well as rising deposit balances contributed to revenue steadily. Here are two important KPIs, the number of business accounts, and contracts for BaaS by GMO Aozora. According to Tokyo Shoko Research, the bank ranked number one for main bank growth rate for the second consecutive year, demonstrating strong expansion of its customer base. Since its launch in 2018, the bank has continuously enhanced convenience, expanded functionality, strengthened its competitive fee structure to provide number one products. In addition to in-house development and operation by engineers, who account for about 40% of the partners, has contributed significantly to higher customer satisfaction. The number of BaaS by GMO Aozora contracts, another important KPI, is also growing steadily.
Through APIs that provide banking functions such as payment and deposit notifications as cloud services, we offer a solution that will allow businesses to integrate banking into their own service experiences without disruption, an aspect highly valued by customers. Finally, here's the status of our deposit balances. We have achieved a major milestone of surpassing JPY 1 trillion. Seven years after launch in 2018, together with 200,000 business accounts, we have now reached the important milestone of JPY 1 trillion in deposits. This is a result of our corporate-focused strategy and the strong support we have received from SMEs and startup customers. Going forward as a next-generation tech bank, we will continue to serve as an important growth engine for the group. Please look forward to it. Finally, shareholder returns. Our basic shareholder returns policy has long been a total shareholder returns ratio of 50%.
The dividends account for 33% of our consolidated net income, while the remaining 70% is allocated to share buybacks and then cancellations. To return results to shareholders promptly, we have introduced a quarterly dividend system. The dividend per share for this quarter is JPY 9.5. Finally, an update on the progress of our share repurchase program. The planned total of JPY 10 billion has now been fully completed. This concludes today's presentation. Thank you very much for watching.