The Naver Corporation is a South Korean internet conglomerate headquartered in
Seongnam
Seongnam () is the fourth largest city in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province after Suwon and the 10th largest city in the country. Its population is approximately one million. Seongnam is a satellite city of Seoul. It is largely a residential cit ...
that operates the
search engine
A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...
Naver
Naver (Hangul: 네이버) is a South Korean online platform operated by the Naver Corporation. It was launched in 1999 as the first web portal in South Korea to develop and use its own search engine. It was also the world's first operator to in ...
. Naver established itself as an early pioneer in the use of
user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion f ...
through the creation of the online Q&A platform
Knowledge iN
The Naver Corporation is a South Korean internet conglomerate headquartered in Seongnam that operates the search engine Naver. Naver established itself as an early pioneer in the use of user-generated content through the creation of the online ...
. Naver also manages the video messenger
SNOW
Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes.
It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
, and group communication service
BAND
Band or BAND may refer to:
Places
*Bánd, a village in Hungary
*Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
*Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania
* Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...
.
On August 1, 2013, Naver decided to split with
Hangame
Hangame ( ko, 한게임) (also known as Hange ( ja, ハンゲ) and formerly known as NHN Hangame ( ja, NHNハンゲーム) in Japan) is a popular South Korean online game portal operated by NHN Corporation. Launched in December 1999, Hangame offer ...
, a corporation which it had grown together with as
NHN Corporation
NHN Corp. () is a Korean IT company that started its business as a game company called Hangame in 1999. Currently its main businesses can be categorized as Cloud, Fin-Tech (cross-border e-commerce, payment), Entertainment (game, webtoon, musi ...
for 13 years. On October 1, 2013, the company adopted its current name Naver Corporation in order to reflect the change, restoring its pre-merger name. Hangame is now overseen by
NHN Entertainment Corporation
NHN Corp. () is a Korean IT company that started its business as a game company called Hangame in 1999. Currently its main businesses can be categorized as Cloud, Fin-Tech (cross-border e-commerce, payment), Entertainment (game, webtoon, musi ...
. Naver's current affiliates include
Line Corporation
Line Corporation is a Tokyo-based subsidiary of Z Holdings, which is jointly owned by Softbank Group and Naver Corporation. The company's business is mainly associated with the development of mobile applications and Internet services, particular ...
, Snow, Naver Labs, Naver Webtoon, NAVER Cloud, and Works Mobile. The company is currently cooperating with IT startups in order to evolve into a tech-based platform.
History
1999–2000: Establishment and launch of services
Naver Corporation was first established in June 1999 under the name of Naver Comm. Along with its search engine
Naver
Naver (Hangul: 네이버) is a South Korean online platform operated by the Naver Corporation. It was launched in 1999 as the first web portal in South Korea to develop and use its own search engine. It was also the world's first operator to in ...
, the company also launched a service for children named Junior Naver. In July 2000, Naver merged with
Hangame
Hangame ( ko, 한게임) (also known as Hange ( ja, ハンゲ) and formerly known as NHN Hangame ( ja, NHNハンゲーム) in Japan) is a popular South Korean online game portal operated by NHN Corporation. Launched in December 1999, Hangame offer ...
Communications Inc. and several other companies including Oneque and Search Solutions.
In August 2000, Naver began its 'comprehensive search' service, which allows users to get a variety of results from a search query on a single page, organized by type (for example blogs, webpages, images, cafes, etc.). In September 2000, Naver established Hangame Japan.
2001–2012: Renaming and worldwide expansion
In 2001, NAVER Comm was renamed NHN Corporation (Next Human Network), although both divisions—Naver and Hangame—continued to operate under their original brand names. NHN also stood for (NAVER, Hangame, Network).
In 2002, NHN was registered on the
KOSDAQ
KOSDAQ (acronym of Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, Korean: 코스닥) is a trading board of Korea Exchange (KRX) in South Korea established in 1996. Initially set up by Korea Financial Investment Association as an independent stoc ...
stock exchange, and launched the online Q&A service Naver Knowledge iN. In 2003, NHN merged all Japanese subsidiaries into NHN Japan. In 2005, Naver began the online donation service: Happy Bean. It also established its US branch under the name NHN USA. In 2007, it launched Naver Japan in order to pursue its search engine business in Japan. Meanwhile, NHN USA officially opened its American game service,
ijji
ijji was a free multiplayer game portal website. Games hosted at ijji ranged from traditional shooters and MMORPGs to more accessible casual games, all of which were free to download and play, and with the majority featuring competitive multip ...
. However, it later sold away its 100% stake to
Aeria Games
Aeria Games, formerly known as Aeria Games and Entertainment, is an online game publisher. The corporate headquarters is in Berlin, Germany.
Aeria Games was a subsidiary of ProSiebenSat.1 Media, which operates an Internet gaming portal for mas ...
.
In 2008, NHN appeared on the
Forbes Global 2000
The ''Forbes'' Global 2000 is an annual ranking of the top 2000 public companies in the world, published by ''Forbes'' magazine. "The Global 2000" annual ranking is assembled by ''Forbes'' using a weighted assessment of four metrics: sales, profi ...
list for the first time. That same year, NHN had the largest market capitalization among
KOSDAQ
KOSDAQ (acronym of Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, Korean: 코스닥) is a trading board of Korea Exchange (KRX) in South Korea established in 1996. Initially set up by Korea Financial Investment Association as an independent stoc ...
-listed companies before being transferred to the
KOSPI
The Korea Composite Stock Price Index or KOSPI (코스피지수) is the index of all common stocks traded on the Stock Market Division—previously, Korea Stock Exchange—of the Korea Exchange. It is the representative stock market index of So ...
market in November. In 2009, Kim Sang-Hun of NHN and Jing-Wan Kim of
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
were the only South Korean CEOs to appear on ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
Asia's Fab 50 list.
In 2010 NHN bought
Livedoor
was a Japanese company that functioned as an Internet service provider and operator of a web portal and blog platform before being brought down by a scandal in 2006. The company was founded and led in its first 10 years by Takafumi Horie, known a ...
, a Japanese
ISP
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
and
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
platform. In the same year, the company moved into its new headquarters now known as the
Green Factory
The Green Factory is an office building located in Bundang-gu Seongnam-si of South Korea, and serves as the headquarters of Naver Corporation, a Korean internet content service company. The building was completed in March 2010, with 27 floors abov ...
.
In June 2011, NHN Japan launched
Line
Line most often refers to:
* Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity
* Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system
Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to:
Arts ...
, a messaging application that quickly soared in usage. In 2012, NHN announced that it planned to invest in developing ten social media games. In the same year, NHN Japan, Naver Japan and Livedoor were all merged into one company: NHN Japan. In August, NHN also established its Singapore branch NHN Singapore.
2013–2015: Splitting from NHN
In 2013, NHN launched its subsidiary companies
Camp Mobile
Camp Mobile, founded in February 2013, is a mobile application development company based in Seoul, Korea. Ram Lee and Jongmahn Park are the co-CEOs. The company currently operates seven mobile services ranging from social network service to smartw ...
and Line Plus. NHN was split into Naver Corporation and
NHN Entertainment
NHN Corp. () is a Korean IT company that started its business as a game company called Hangame in 1999. Currently its main businesses can be categorized as Cloud, Fin-Tech (cross-border e-commerce, payment), Entertainment (game, webtoon, musi ...
, the latter being formerly known as Hangame. Similarly, NHN Japan separated into Line Corporation (web services) and Hangame Japan (game services). In June, Naver became the first web company in Korea to build and operate its own data center, Data Center GAK, which was built in
Chuncheon
Chuncheon (; ; formerly romanized as Chunchŏn; literally ''spring river'') is the capital of Gangwon Province in South Korea. The city lies in the north of the county, located in a basin formed by the Soyang River and Han River. There are some ...
,
Gangwon Province.
In 2015, Naver launched Works Mobile for B2B collaboration businesses and merged with Entry Education Labs, which is a software education platform company. In the same year, global revenues began exceeding due to the growth of global affiliate services such as LINE.
2016–2020: Listing and further expansion
Naver's annual revenue for 2016 was 4.02 trillion won. In 2016, Line Corporation was double listed on both the
NYSE
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the List of stock exchanges, world's largest s ...
and the
TSE. In August 2016, Naver spun off its app
SNOW
Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes.
It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
into a separate subsidiary company, Snow Corp. Naver also began Project Flower, a project which aims to support small businesses and creators by cooperating with them on various projects. In September 2016, Naver and its affiliate Line announced that they would invest a combined 100 million euros (US$112 million) into K-Fund 1. K-Fund 1 is a European startup accelerator fund operated by Korelya Capital, which is an investment firm established by
Fleur Pellerin
Fleur Pellerin (; Birth name, née Kim Jong-sook, born 29 August 1973) is a French businesswoman, former civil servant and Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party politician who served as a Government of France, French government minister from ...
, the Korean-born former French minister overseeing small and medium enterprises in the digital economy.
In 2017, Naver established its subsidiary companies Snow, Naver Labs, and Naver Webtoon. Naver opened Space Green, which is a startup space inside
Station F
Station F is a business incubator for startups, located in 13th arrondissement of Paris. It is noted as the world's largest startup facility.
Situated in a former rail freight depot previously known as la Halle Freyssinet (thereof the "F" in St ...
, a startup incubator space located in France. Naver also acquired
Xerox
Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (ha ...
Research Centre Europe, located in the French city
Grenoble
lat, Gratianopolis
, commune status = Prefecture and commune
, image = Panorama grenoble.png
, image size =
, caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...
, rebranding it as Naver Labs Europe.
2021–present: Global expansion
In mid-January 2021, Naver announced the acquisition of
Wattpad
Wattpad is an online literature platform intended for users to read and write original stories. The founders Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen say that the platform aims to create social communities around stories and remove the barriers between readers a ...
for US$600 million.
In March 2021
Line Corporation
Line Corporation is a Tokyo-based subsidiary of Z Holdings, which is jointly owned by Softbank Group and Naver Corporation. The company's business is mainly associated with the development of mobile applications and Internet services, particular ...
merged with
Yahoo Japan
is a Japanese internet company originally formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! (later divested by Verizon into Altaba) and the Japanese company SoftBank. It is headquartered at Kioi Tower in the Tokyo Garden Terr ...
, which has been operated by
Z Holdings
Z Holdings Corporation is a Tokyo-based holding company. Z Holdings owns Yahoo! Japan, Japan's largest portal website; Line, Japan's largest messaging app; and PayPay, Japan's largest mobile payment app. Z Holdings is controlled by another holdi ...
, a
SoftBank Group
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...
subsidiary.
Under the new structure, Naver and SoftBank Corp., which is the wireless carrier unit of SoftBank Group, each hold 50 percent stakes in a new company named A Holdings Corp., which holds a majority stake in Z Holdings, which will operate Line and Yahoo Japan.
Upon integrating the two businesses and creating further platforms, the merged company aims to compete with the U.S. tech giants Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple and the Chinese tech giants
Baidu
Baidu, Inc. ( ; , meaning "hundred times") is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products and artificial intelligence (AI), headquartered in Beijing's Haidian District. It is one of the la ...
,
Alibaba
Ali Baba (character), Ali Baba is a character from the folk tale ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves''.
Ali Baba or Alibaba may also refer to:
Films
* Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1902 film), ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'' (1902 film), a F ...
, and
Tencent
Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...
,
as well as the Japanese e-commerce giant
Rakuten
() is a Japanese technology conglomerate based in Tokyo, founded by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997. Centered around Rakuten Ichiba, its businesses include financial services utilizing financial technology, as well as digital content and communicati ...
.
The merger also gives Z Holdings three additional Asian markets where Line is popular: Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.
In May 2021, Naver partnered with CJ Group’s
CJ ENM
CJ ENM (, CJ Entertainment aNd Merchandising) is a South Korean entertainment and retail company founded in 2018.
CJ ENM was established as a result of the merger of two CJ Group subsidiaries, CJ E&M and CJ O Shopping respectively, in July 201 ...
to acquire Munpia Inc, the third largest web-novel platform in Korea.
Products and services
Based on the influence of its core search engine service, Naver has also developed new business models in online advertisement, content, and deep-tech through research and development.
Search engine
Naver was the first Korean web provider to develop its own search engine. It was also the first operator to introduce the comprehensive search service (which refers to optimized search results from various categories such as news, maps, images and so on, presented on a single page). The search engine has since grown to offer a variety of related services including e-mail, mapping, e-commerce, social media, wireless payments, and online streaming.
Junior Naver
Junior Naver, also known as Juniver, is a children's search service that began in 1999 with the purpose of fostering a safe culture for children. Junior Naver provides various services for children of each age range, such as Pororo Play Time (educational content for aged 3~5), Pany's Room (decoration simulator using Pany Pang characters), Children's song world, and Children's story world—as well as a Disney Zone for Disney Channel shows and animations. The application and the mobile version were each launched in 2011 and 2012 in order to provide contents in streaming form rather than having to download them. Junior Naver also operates a parental monitoring system that blocks harmful or inappropriate information. Meanwhile, Junior Naver's "Gameland" service was officially terminated in February 201
Knowledge iN
In 2002, Naver set up one of the first
Q&A software, Q&A webpages, Knowledge iN. The service allows users to post questions on any subject, and select from answers submitted by other users, points are awarded to users with the most helpful answers.
Knowledge iN also offers an Open Dictionary function, which is a database of informative articles generated by users. Users can create an article on their own, or enable other users to collaborate by creating a thread of articles on the same subject. There is also an 'Ask an Expert' category where licensed doctors, veterinarians, pharmacists, lawyers, tax accountants, and labor attorneys answer users' questions. As of May 2016, Knowledge iN had 100 million questions, 200 million answers, and 47 million accumulated users.
Cafe and Blog
Naver Cafe and Blog are especially well-known
user-generated content
User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion f ...
(UGC) platforms where users post specialized contents on various themes. Cafe allows users to create communities on various topics, and Blog gives any user the chance to manage their own personal blog. There were 10.5 million Naver Cafes running in May 2017, making Naver the most visited Cafe platform in the country. 800,000 new contents are generated every day in 23 million Blogs and 10 million Cafes.
Dictionary and Encyclopedia
Naver Dictionary supports 34 categories, including English, Korean, Chines
Chinese characters, Japanese, Global Communication, Vietnamese, Uzbek, Indonesian, Thai, Arabic, Khmer, Tamil, Mongolian, Hindi, Persian, Nepali, Swahili, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Turkish, Georgian, Albanian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Dutch, Swedish, Hungarian, Polish, and Czech as of May 30, 2017. It has the most languages among Korean dictionaries. Handwriting recognition is supported in Japanese and Chinese characters. Naver is also investing 10 billion won for the development of language dictionaries for five years beginning from 2016.
Naver Encyclopedia functions consist of a professional database with over 3 million entries from many different encyclopedias.
V Live
V Live is a global live streaming platform with high-quality videos and contents ranging from concert broadcasts to V originals (for example, real-time private shows for celebrities). There is also a subtitle service called V FANSUB which allows users to insert their own foreign-language subtitles to the videos. The subtitle feature has attracted a large number of foreign viewers, as
K-pop
K-pop (), short for Korean popular music, is a form of popular music originating in South Korea as part of South Korean culture. It includes styles and genres from around the world, such as pop, hip hop, R&B, experimental, rock, jazz, gos ...
is gaining popularity in other countries. V Live has 35 million total downloads and 19 million monthly users. According to
Alexa
Alexa may refer to: Technology
*Amazon Alexa, a virtual assistant developed by Amazon
* Alexa Internet, a defunct website ranking and traffic analysis service
* Arri Alexa, a digital motion picture camera
People
*Alexa (name), a given name and ...
, as of May 2018 it is one of the 1000 most visited webpages globally.
On January 27, 2021, it was announced that they would invest ₩354.8 billion ($321 million) in
Hybe's technology subsidiary, Weverse Company Inc., acquiring 49% of the company. In return, the corporation would transfer its V Live streaming service to Weverse Company.
Naver Papago
In July 2017, Naver launched Papago, which is an AI-based mobile translator that uses a large neural network technology named N2MT (Naver Neural Machine Translation). It can translate text and phrases in 15 different languages (Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Spanish, French, German, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Hindi) by analyzing context instead of statistical analysis.
Papago app has so far garnered over 16 million downloads.
Naver Pay
In June 2015, Naver launched its own payment service, Naver Pay, which allows
mobile payment
A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of d ...
service and online checkout.
Service feature are below :
1. Can pay with your Naver ID
2. Can set up password consist of 6 letters.
3. Can get point when you pay with Naver Pay.
Naver TV
Naver TV (Previously known as Naver TV Cast) is a web broadcast network which provides
web dramas distributed by Naver as well as user created content with videos and live streams.
Naver NOW.
Naver NOW. is a streaming service available through Naver's app, that streams music and radio shows live 24-hours a day.
Naver Webtoon
In 2004, Naver Corporation launched its online comic service Naver Webtoon, which is now one of the largest Korean
webtoon
Webtoons (), are a type of digital comic that originated in South Korea usually meant to be read on smartphones.
While webtoons were mostly unknown outside of Korea during their inception, there has been a surge in popularity internationally ...
platforms. The service promotes a distinct
infinite canvas
The infinite canvas refers to the potentially limitless space that is available to webcomics presented on the World Wide Web. The term was introduced by Scott McCloud in his 2000 book '' Reinventing Comics'', in which he suggested that webcomic cre ...
layout as well as a weekly update system, and has gained a large amount of traction beginning from the late 2000s. The service received more than 6 million hits per day from unique visitors and had accumulated more than 29 billion total visits as of June 1, 2014. In July 2014, Naver launched a global version of the service under the name of Line Webtoon. The userbase of Line Webtoon grew rapidly after the service was released globally, with 65 million users per month, 18 million among them being foreign users. Line Webtoon showcases approximately 870 works in seven languages: English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese Indonesian, Thai, Spanish and French. Various
movies
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
,
Korean drama
Korean dramas (; RR: ''Han-guk deurama''), more popularly known as K-dramas, are television series in the Korean language, made in South Korea.
They are popular worldwide, especially in Asia, partially due to the spread of Korean popular cultu ...
s,
animated series
An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have either ...
, and video games have been produced based on Naver webtoons. According to JunKoo Kim in 2014, "a total of 189 books, videos and games based on
aver
Aver may refer to:
People
* , Russian botanist
Places
* Aver lake or Aver See, Germany
Organisations
* AVER (band)
* AVer Information, Taiwanese company
* American Veterans for Equal Rights
See also
*Vow
A vow ( Lat. ''votum'', vow, promis ...
webtoons ha
either been produced or
erein the process of being made." Well-known works include ''
The Sound of Your Heart'', which was developed into a
web series of the same name, ''
Noblesse
The concept of the Scottish Noblesse, a class of nobles of either peerage or non-peerage rank, was prominently advocated for by Sir Thomas Innes of Learney during his tenure as an officer of arms. Innes of Learney believed that Scottish armigers ...
'', and ''
Tower of God
''Tower of God'' () is a South Korean manhwa released as a webtoon written and illustrated by S.I.U. It has been serialized in Naver Corporation's webtoon platform Naver Webtoon since June 2010, with the individual chapters collected and publish ...
''. ''
Fashion King'' and ''
Cheese in the Trap
''Cheese in the Trap'' () is a South Korean manhwa series written and illustrated by Soonkki. The webtoon was released on Internet portal Naver WEBTOON since 2010, and the first volume in print was published on March 2, 2012. It was adapted int ...
'' were also each adapted into a
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
and
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...
respectively. In 2017, Naver split off its webtoon business into the subsidiary Naver Webtoon, which is also known by its alternative name Line Webtoon in foreign markets.
In addition, Naver Webtoon also manages a web-novel section specializing in online genre-novels since 2013. One of its most famous novels is ''Moonlight Drawn by Clouds'', which was adapted into a successful
television series of the same name starring
Park Bo-gum
Park Bo-gum (; born June 16, 1993) is a South Korean actor. He gained recognition for his diverse range of roles in film and television, notably, a psychopathic lawyer in ''Hello Monster'' (2015), a genius Go player in ''Reply 1988'' (2015–2 ...
and
Kim Yoo-jung
Kim Yoo-jung (; born September 22, 1999) is a South Korean actress. She debuted as a model for a confectionery brand at the age of four. After her acting debut in 2003, she became one of the best known child actresses in Korea since then, aft ...
.
Naver Whale
In October 2017, Naver officially released the PC version of Whale, its omni-tasking web browser supporting diverse features using AI technologies. Naver had been developing Whale for 5 years and had released a beta version in March. Some functions include: omni-tasking (split-screen feature that lets users browse two sites in the same tab, with an adjustable divider), quick search (users can simply drag a word and the browser will directly provide corresponding search results through Naver's search engine), and smart pop-up (the browser automatically prevents popups from cluttering the screen).
Clova
Clova is an AI platform integrating speech and image recognition and artificial neural network translation to provide an interactive engine. Clova is being integrated into Naver and Line services, Naver's smart speaker
WAVE
In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (res ...
and
Friends
''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa ...
, smart display FACE, and other third-party devices.
Band
BAND
Band or BAND may refer to:
Places
*Bánd, a village in Hungary
*Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
*Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania
* Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...
, CAMP Mobile's first app released in August 2012, is a closed type of social network where groups can be formed according to type and purpose. The app has more than 80 million downloads with global users accounting for 30% of the user base, and currently supports 10 languages in over 168 countries. Band Game was also released in May 2014 to provide a competitive platform for both users and game companies. According to a survey conducted by the app data analysis firm Wiseapp in September 2017, Naver BAND is the second most-used social media service app for South Korean users, after Facebook. Its total usage time was 29 million hours, which was a 32 percent increase from the previous year. Naver Café came in third place, outperforming Instagram, Daum Café, Twitter, and Kakao Story.
Grafolio
Grafolio is a creative community space where artists can share their artworks. Grafolio supports active creators and connects them with people with the hope that they will be able to meet more fans and make profits.
Former services
Me2day
Me2day was a
microblog
Microblogging is a form of social network that permits only short posts. They "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links",. Retrieved June 5, 2014 which may be the major reason for ...
platform that allowed users to share messages of 150 characters in length. However, it shut down in June 2014, due to poor performance against global competitors such as
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
and
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
.
Subsidiary companies
CAMP Mobile
CAMP Mobile was established in March 2013 and focuses on developing mobile services. While it originally began as a small venture project, Camp Mobile launched over 10 different apps in areas such as utilities, social networking, and e-commerce within four months of its establishment.
In 2012, the company launched its first app, Band, a social network application.
In 2015, the company also presented Watchmaster, an app that allows users to select their own smart watch home screen.
In November 2017, it was announced that Camp Mobile would be merged back into Naver Corporation in February 2018.
SNOW
SNOW Corporation develops a photo and video application called SNOW, which is considered somewhat similar to
Snapchat
Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before the ...
, since both apps suggest video as an alternative communication tool rather than text. SNOW first began in September 2015 as a guerrilla project in CAMP Mobile, but has spun off into its own company as of 2016 in order to give more focus to the global visual communication market. SNOW allows users to take pictures or videos (of a maximum duration of 10 seconds) and choose from 1,300 stickers and 50 filters. They can also send them as messages that destroy themselves in 48 hours. The application has over 200 million users, mainly consisting of teenagers in Asian countries.
The firm is led by CEO Kim Chang-wook and its office is located in Pangyo, South Korea with approximately 200 employees.
Naver Labs
NAVER LABS Corp. is Naver's R&D subsidiary developing future technologies in areas such as autonomous driving and artificial intelligence with the goal of achieving Ambient Intelligence. It first began as an R&D division within Naver in 2013, and was officially established in Pangyo in January 2017 with CEO Song Chang-Hyeon. Naver Labs has been working in areas such as Papago (an AI-based translation app), Whale (an omni-tasking browser), and robots. Products include the autonomous robot Around, the in-vehicle information and entertainment platform Away, as well as an autonomous vehicle project.
Naver Labs Europe
In August 2017, Naver Labs acquired Xerox Research Center Europe (XRCE) for an undisclosed amount and renamed i
Naver Labs Europe Naver said that the acquisition of the high-tech research center located in Grenoble, France earned the company 80 specialists in AI research and development and technologies necessary to "realize 'living environment intelligence' such as autonomous driving cars and 3-dimensional indoor map production robots".
Naver Labs Europe is the biggest industrial research center in Artificial Intelligence in France.
Naver Cloud
NAVER Cloud Corporation provides global IT infrastructure management and enterprise solutions for Naver and its subsidiaries. NAVER Cloud has launched a cloud service called Naver Cloud Platform, and has also created an environment-friendly Data Center called GAK, which was a first for a domestic internet operator.
The Data Center GAK was opened in June 2013 in order to protect the data of several million users in its servers. It consists of 4 server buildings built on a scale of 7 soccer stadiums (54,229m
2). The name of the center comes from ‘Jang Gyung Gak’, a traditional building that houses the famous
Tripitaka Koreana
The (lit. ) or ("Eighty-Thousand ''Tripiṭaka''") is a Korean collection of the (Buddhist scriptures, and the Sanskrit word for "three baskets"), carved onto 81,258 wooden printing blocks in the 13th century.
It is the oldest intact vers ...
. Jang Gyung Gak is respected for having safely protected important historical records even in the face of foreign invasion, and continues to preserves them in a manner that is both environmentally friendly and scientifically renown. Likewise, it is said that the Data Center Gak inherits this spirit of protection and provides safe housing for current historical records so that they can be passed on to the future. The Center incorporates environmentally friendly technology that cools the heat generated from the servers, and in 2009, it has received the top LEED platinum award with 95 points, which is the highest score in the world for a data center.
Works Mobile
Works Mobile Corporation provides a cloud-based office service called Line Works for B2B purposes. Functions include mail, calendar, address Book, N-drive, and web-office. Works Mobile has users mainly in Korea and Japan, but also targets the global B2B market with help from operation know-how of NAVER Cloud and Naver.
Studio N
Studio N is the production company founded by Naver Webtoon in 2018 to produce original drama series based on their Korean webtoon IPs. Its shows include ''
Hell Is Other People
''Hell Is Other People'' () is a 2019 South Korean television series starring Im Si-wan and Lee Dong-wook. Based on the Naver WEBTOON webtoon series of the same name by Kim Yong-ki, it is the second series of OCN's "Dramatic Cinema" project w ...
'', ''
Pegasus Market
''Pegasus Market'' () is a 2019 South Korean television series based on Kim Gyu-sam's webtoon of the same name, starring Kim Byung-chul and Lee Dong-hwi. It aired on tvN every Friday at 23:00 ( KST) from September 20 to December 6, 2019.
Synops ...
'', and ''
Sweet Home Sweet Home or Sweethome may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Sweet Home, Arkansas
* Sweet Home Central School District in Amherst and Tonawanda, New York
** Sweet Home High School (Amherst, New York), a New York State public high school
* ...
''.
Projects and foundations
Happy Bean Foundation
Happy Bean began as Korea's first online donation platform in July 2005, connecting potential contributors with public organizations in need of assistance. Its concept was to make online donating easier and more convenient by using a special digital currency called 'beans', while also providing information about social welfare organizations and various donation campaigns. Ever since, Happy Bean has led a new donation trend where users can donate on a daily basis more easily, without having to go through complicated processes. The Happy Bean Foundation was established in May 2009 in order to handle the overall business operations of Happy Bean. As of October 2017, the foundation has received a total donation of 75 billion won with 14 million participants and about 6 thousand participating organizations.
Deview
Deview is a conference hosted by Naver since 2008, where developers from various countries share their technical knowledge and experience. Through several dozens of sessions, participants share in-depth knowledge in fields such as web, mobile, AI, big data, deep learning, robotics, and more. In 2017, 2,500 tickets went out in 15 seconds.
Cultural Foundation
Naver Cultural Foundation, officially established in 2009, is devoted to creating online and offline cultural spaces where people can rediscover and discuss various forms of culture such as books. In 2010, the Naver Cultural Foundation launched a support program for indie musicians. In November of the same year, the foundation opened an online platform called 'Onstage' to introduce new up-and-coming indie bands.
Connect Foundation
Connect Foundation is an independent nonprofit organization established by Naver in 2011. It serves public interest by providing equal educational opportunities for everyone. It promotes the dissemination of IT education as well as basic science and engineering education projects. Programs include public online classes, software training, math/science education, and design courses. In September 2017, Naver announced plans to donate 7 billion won (6.2 million dollars) to the Connect Foundation. As a result, Naver's total amount of donations to the Connect Foundation accumulated to 12 billion won (10.6 million dollars).
D2 Startup Factory
D2 Startup Factory (D2SF) is an investment project that was launched in May 2015 with the goals of vitalizing the domestic tech start-up environment and fostering talents. As of 2017, it has invested in 16 start-ups with notable technical skills in areas such as AI, hardware, VR/AR and IoT. For example, in August 2017, it announced its investments in AI startups Furiosa AI, Deepixel, and CrowdWorks.
In September of the same year, D2SF held a Demo Day where it presented four start-ups that they were also investing in: Buzzmusiq (social visual playlist platform), Elice (online education platform for coders), Widevantage (producer of smart pens for iPad), and The Wave Talk (technology that automatically filters bacteria and drains contaminants from running water).
Project Flower
In 2016, Naver launched Project Flower, the company's long-term project to provide platform services that small enterprises and content creators can utilize to maximize benefits and reap success. As a business and content platform, Naver has 1.6 million local businesses, more than 400 professional webcomic authors, 150 web novel writers, 10,000 illustrators and 3,300 indie musicians. By providing more support for small businesses, the company said that it aims to attract more than 10,000 new small businesses to its platform every year and predicts that over 1,500 of them will earn more than 100 million won each in annual sales.
For content creators, Naver helps them work in a sustainable environment and ultimately encourages them to go global as a way to motivate their creativity. To do so, Naver has expanded the application of its illustration content platform Grafolio to include not only illustrations but also photography, design, art and background music. It also holds original content exhibitions and events such as Creators' Day. Naver also diversifies the income structure of content creators by matching them with investors through crowdfunding and by connecting them to digital content marketplaces.
Corporate affairs and culture
Employees and culture
As of 2021, Naver had 4,595 employees, excluding subsidiaries.
[ In 2014, Naver was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellent Enterprise in equal employment division by the ministry of Labor.
]
Green Factory
Naver's headquarters, located in Bundang-gu
Bundang-gu is the largest and most populous district ('' gu'') of Seongnam, a major city in the Seoul Capital Area, South Korea. Bundang-gu is one of South Korea's wealthiest and highest developed areas, being the nation's first and largest comple ...
Seongnam-si
Seongnam () is the fourth largest city in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province after Suwon and the 10th largest city in the country. Its population is approximately one million. Seongnam is a satellite city of Seoul. It is largely a residential city ...
of South Korea, is referred to as the Green Factory
The Green Factory is an office building located in Bundang-gu Seongnam-si of South Korea, and serves as the headquarters of Naver Corporation, a Korean internet content service company. The building was completed in March 2010, with 27 floors abov ...
.
The construction of the Green Factory was completed in March 2010 with 27 floors above ground and 7 floors underground. The interior of the building was designed to provide as open an environment as possible, where the company's culture and values would be reflected. The intent was to create a working space which fosters better communication between employees.
Green Factory's office spaces are designed like pods, which focus on a central open meeting area. Most of the central meeting spaces have non-traditional furniture and match the casual atmosphere represented throughout the rest of the interior. The emergency stairs sport different patterns or designs instead of the typical painted concrete finish. The building also has special facilities including a library and a magazine area, which are both open to the public, a cafeteria, an exercise center, and a healthcare center.
The steel and glass façade houses adjustable vertical louvers which restrict or allow sunlight to enter the building. The louvers are automatically closed and opened at times of sunrise and sunset, allowing the building to save energy. On special occasions, the façade displays different images such as the company's logo. Internal light is selectively blocked by a nocturnal automated louver system.
The building is certified as 'Platinum' under the global green building design rating system LEED
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a
green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction ...
.
Global offices
Naver currently holds global offices in Japan, US, France, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Indonesia.
See also
* Naver
Naver (Hangul: 네이버) is a South Korean online platform operated by the Naver Corporation. It was launched in 1999 as the first web portal in South Korea to develop and use its own search engine. It was also the world's first operator to in ...
* Line (application)
Line is a freeware app for instant communications on electronic devices such as smartphones, tablet computers and personal computers. Line users exchange: texts, images, video and audio and conduct free VoIP conversations and video conferences ...
* Hangame
Hangame ( ko, 한게임) (also known as Hange ( ja, ハンゲ) and formerly known as NHN Hangame ( ja, NHNハンゲーム) in Japan) is a popular South Korean online game portal operated by NHN Corporation. Launched in December 1999, Hangame offer ...
* NHN Entertainment Corporation
NHN Corp. () is a Korean IT company that started its business as a game company called Hangame in 1999. Currently its main businesses can be categorized as Cloud, Fin-Tech (cross-border e-commerce, payment), Entertainment (game, webtoon, musi ...
References
External links
Naver Corporation
Naver
Line Corporation
Snow Corporation
Naver Labs
Naver Cloud
CAMP Mobile
Works Mobile
Naver Webtoon
{{Major Internet companies
Companies based in Gyeonggi Province
Companies listed on the Korea Exchange
Conglomerate companies of South Korea
Internet properties established in 1999
Mass media companies of South Korea
Mass media in Seongnam
Software companies of South Korea
South Korean brands
South Korean companies established in 1999
Telecommunications companies of South Korea