Naver
Naver is a South Korean online platform operated by the Naver Corporation. The company's products include a search engine, email hosting, blogs, maps, and mobile payment.
History
Naver was the first Korean web provider to develop its own search engine. The company was founded on 2 June 1999, and is headquartered in Seongnam, South Korea. Naver is a combination of 'navigate' and the suffix '-er', referring to a person who navigates the vast ocean of information on the Internet. Naver provides community services including blogs and cafes, other convenient services such as knowledge, shopping, maps, books, e-mail, and a Naver toolbar.In August 2000, Naver launched its 'comprehensive search' service, which allows users to get a variety of results from a single search query on one page, organized by type, including blogs, websites, images, and web communities.
Naver became an early pioneer in user-generated content through the creation of the 'Knowledge iN' ' service in 2002. In Knowledge iN, users can pose questions on any subject and select from answers provided by other users, awarding points to those who give the best answers. Knowledge iN was launched three years before Yahoo! introduced its similar 'Yahoo! Answers' service and now possesses a database of over 200 million answers.
Bradley Horowitz, former Vice President of Product Strategy at Yahoo!, has cited Knowledge iN as the inspiration for Yahoo! Answers, which was launched three years after Naver introduced the original service.
Over the years, Naver has continued to expand its services. Naver Blog started with the name 'paper' in June 2003 and evolved to 'blog' in October 2003. 'Webtoon' is a South Korean webtoon publisher launched in 2004 by Naver.
In May 2005, Naver started the Real-time Search service. The rising search terms was a chart in Naver that highlighted trending topics in real-time. The top searches would appear on the portal main page, reaching a large number of users.
From 2005 to 2007, Naver expanded its multimedia search services, including music and video search, as well as mobile search. Naver had launched a messaging app called Line for the South Korean market in February 2011.
In 2019, Naver reorganized its mobile version of the main screen, excluding search windows and some menus. In response, more than 3,000 comments opposing the change were posted.
In October 2023, Naver announced the beta release of its AI chatbot service, 'CLOVA X'.
Naver mobile map application began providing real-time service on natural disaster information on 15 September 2024.
Services
Naver Dictionary
Naver Dictionary was launched in 1999, alongside Naver. It initially supported only Korean and English., it supports 67 languages. The dictionary aggregates results from a number of other dictionaries, including Urimalsaem, which is operated by the National Institute of Korean Language. It also aggregates results from English-language dictionaries such as Oxford Dictionary of English and the Collins English Dictionary. It also operates an open-source dictionary called Open Dictionary PRO.Junior Naver
Junior Naver, also known as Juniver, is a portal website for children, similar to Yahooligans. Junior Naver offers services such as avatars, educational content, quizzes, videos, Q&A, and a homework helper. It uses a panel of experts and educators to filter out harmful content, ensuring a safe internet environment for children. With its competitors Daum Kids and Yahoo Kids having closed down, Junior Naver is now the only children's portal site operating in Korea.Knowledge iN
Knowledge iN, formerly Knowledge Search, is an online Q&A platform launched in October 2002. The tool allows users to ask any question and receive answers from other users. Naver became an early pioneer in user-generated content through the creation of the 'Knowledge iN' ' service in 2002. Bradley Horowitz, former Vice President of Product Strategy at Yahoo!, has cited Knowledge iN as the inspiration for Yahoo! Answers, which was launched three years after Naver introduced the original service.Naver encourages unauthorized publishing to attract users to its Knowledge iN service. This contributes to poor-quality content on Knowledge iN, as previous answers to questions remain unchanged and old questions can be minimally only modified by other users. Criticism is also growing due to Naver's unilateral control over comments and its editing of information that may contradict its political positions. Teens and people in their twenties accounted for 70% of the questioners and 50% of the respondents. In April 2024, the service was reorganized so that answers could be continuously registered without closing questions, and new answers could be registered even if there were adopted answers. In addition, the limit on the number of additional questions and additional answers has disappeared.
Naver Webtoon
Naver Webtoon, later simply WEBTOON, is a webcomic platform where users have free access to a variety of webtoons created by professional artists. Users can also pay publishers to view comic books and genre fiction content online. Naver has incorporated a 'Challenge' section that allows amateurs to post and promote their works.Naver Cafe
Naver Cafe is a service that allows Naver users to create their own internet communities. As of May 2017, 10.5 million cafes were active. Each person can create up to 300 cafes.From January to August 2024, Naver Cafe's MAU averaged 30 million, up about 10% from the previous year.
Naver Blog
Naver Blog started with the name 'paper' in June 2003 and evolved to 'blog' in October 2003. It had 23 million users as of April 2016. In 2023, there were 1.26 million new users.For two weeks from 1 May 2021, Naver held an event to pay up to 16,000 won to people who posted on Naver's blog every day. However, this event ended early due to several incidents involving people with multiple IDs. Many participants in the event criticized Naver's response.
Naver announced on its official blog that it would resume its "Today's Diary Challenge " event, which ended early in three days, from May 24. However, only those who participated in the previously discontinued event can participate in the event.On 13 May 2021, Naver announced that it would display profile pictures along with comments posted on Naver news articles. Previously, only the first four digits of the author's ID were disclosed, making it difficult to identify users. Naver implemented this change expecting it to facilitate user recognition and address issues with malicious comments. Critics, however, criticized the company for censoring comments.
Naver NOW
Naver NOW is a video streaming and sharing platform that primarily offers web dramas distributed by Naver. Naver NOW replaced the Naver TV mobile app, while Naver TV continues to serve as a web portal.Naver Pay
In June 2015, Naver launched its own payment service, Naver Pay, which allows mobile payment service and online checkout. It is Naver's second mobile payment service after Line Pay. Naver Pay is the most widely used mobile payment service in South Korea.Naver Mail
Naver Mail is an email service available to all Naver users. Each user is provided with up to 5GB of storage.Naver News
Naver News is a news aggregator operated by Naver since 2000. The website co-founded a committee with Daum News to evaluate news presses for the service in 2015, but it was indefinitely shut down in 2023 after allegations of biased audit. It also runs Naver Enter, a subdivision focusing on entertainment news.Naver Shopping Live
Naver Shopping Live is a live commerce platform operated by Naver. Broadcasts can be transmitted via mobile phones or camcorders, with a resolution of 1080*1920 and a vertical format similar to YouTube shorts. It is currently the platform with the highest number of consumers in Korea. As of 2023, 73.6% of mobile shoppers in South Korea use Naver Shopping Live as their primary platform.PRISM Live Studio
PRISM Live Studio is a live streaming application available for both mobile and PC users. Streamers can simultaneously broadcast to multiple platforms, a practice known as simulcasting, with support for up to 1080p HD resolution without increasing network usage. Supported platforms include YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, Periscope, V Live, Naver TV, afreecaTV, KakaoTV, and RTMP channels. The application can also be utilized for video editing purposes.Naver Papago
In July 2017, Naver launched Papago, which is an AI-based mobile translator that uses a large neural network technology named N2MT. It can translate text and phrases in 15 different languages by analyzing context instead of statistical analysis.Papago app has so far garnered over 16 million downloads.