Search it on Google. That sentence is familiar to every internet user around the world. But not for South Korean people. ‘Search it on Naver’, might be a lot more common in the country. Naver is not just a search engine, it’s the biggest digital company in South Korea.
Established in 1999, Naver successfully made its founder, Lee Haejin, in the list of Korea’s 50 Richest 2018. Although in the same year he stepped down from the CEO spot, Lee still holds the biggest share of the company.
From search engine to Webtoon platform, Naver has it all
Initially it was a search engine in the early days of internet in Korea. But the company smartly makes a lot of various innovations and now holds messenger, social media, blog, music platform, video platform, dictionaries, map, and even e-commerce site. The first is Me2Day, a social media platform which pretty much similar to Friendster.
Then in 2004, it launched Naver Webtoon. It’s a breakthrough in promoting comic book through an online platform. The comic strips became so popular that the company made a global version for international readers with Line Webtoon. Moreover, a lot of stories from the site have made it to TV series and movies such as Cheese in The Trap, Misaeng, King of Fashion, etc.
With the growing smartphone technology, Naver released Line in 2011. Line is an all-in-one messenger apps, the number one in Japan. Through Line, users are not only able to chat, but they can share status, sell goods, read latest news, and even watch Korean dramas for free.
Innovations are also made in the social media platform following the graying era of Me2Day. Naver Blog is popular to Koreans to share stories, recipes, and tips. There is also SNOW, a camera apps that offers various beauty and funny filters. Naver Music is one of the biggest music listening platforms in Korea (not iTunes nor Spotify there). And maybe the most innovative is V Live, a video platform for Korean celebrities to communicate with their global fans.
With all of the innovations above, Naver Corp. is now the 8th Most Innovative Companies in 2018. However various suspicions and rumors are spread of the company’s involvement in Korea’s big scandal. Yet, the company is still going steady with the plan of releasing Dr. Mario World with Nintendo and NHN Entertainment in this summer.
