Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 6, 2026

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.

Last revised
Jul 6, 2026
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≈ 12 min
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Wikipedia ↗
Naver Co., Ltd.
NAVER
TypeSubsidiary
Industry
Founded2 June 1999 (1999-06-02)1
FounderLee Hae-jin
Headquarters
Seongnam-si
,
Korea
Area served
Worldwide
Products
  • NAVER Mail
  • NAVER Map
  • NAVER News
ParentNaver Corporation
Korean name
Hangul
네이버
RRNeibeo
MRNeibŏ
Websitewww.naver.com Edit this at Wikidata

Naver (Korean: 네이버; stylized as 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.1

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.2 Naver provides community services including blogs and cafes, other convenient services such as knowledge, shopping, maps, books, e-mail, and a Naver toolbar.1

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' (네이버 지식인)' service in 2002.3 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' service4 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.5

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 2003.6 'Webtoon' is a South Korean webtoon publisher launched in 2004 by Naver.7

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.8

From 2005 to 2007, Naver expanded its multimedia search services, including music and video search, as well as mobile search.

In February 2011, Naver launched the Line messaging app.9

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.10

In October 2023, Naver announced the beta release of its AI chatbot service, 'CLOVA X' (클로바X).11

Naver mobile map application began providing real-time service on natural disaster information on 15 September 2024.12

Services

Naver Dictionary was launched in 1999, alongside Naver. It initially supported only Korean and English.13 As of 2024, it supports 67 languages.14 The dictionary aggregates results from a number of other dictionaries, including Urimalsaem, which is operated by the National Institute of Korean Language.15 It also aggregates results from English-language dictionaries such as Oxford Dictionary of English16 and the Collins English Dictionary.17 It also operates an open-source dictionary called Open Dictionary PRO (ODP).15

Junior Naver

Junior Naver (쥬니어 네이버), also known as Juniver (쥬니버), 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 (지식iN), formerly Knowledge Search (지식검색), is an online Q&A platform launched in October 2002.18 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' (네이버 지식인)' service.3 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.5

Naver encourages unauthorized publishing to attract users to its Knowledge iN service. This led to lower-quality content when compared with Wikipedia as of 2007, which had more moderators.3 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 (네이버 웹툰), 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.7

Naver Cafe (네이버 카페) 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.19 From January to August 2024, Naver Cafe's MAU averaged 30 million, up about 10% from the previous year.20

Naver Blog (네이버 블로그) started with the name 'paper' in June 2003 and evolved to 'blog' in October 2003.21 It had 23 million users as of April 2016. In 2023, there were 1.26 million new users.22

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.23

Naver announced on its official blog that it would resume its "Today's Diary Challenge (#오늘일기챌린지)" event, which ended early in three days, from May 24. However, only those who participated in the previously discontinued event (who completed the three-day record) can participate in the event.24

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.25

Naver NOW (formerly Naver TV) 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.

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.26

Naver Plus Membership (N+ Membership; 네이버 플러스 멤버십, N+멤버십) is Naver's paid subscription service launched in June 2020. Its most significant feature is that upon paying a monthly or annual subscription fee, users receive up to 4% additional points (totaling up to 5%) on top of the basic 1% points earned when making payments via Naver Pay for Naver Shopping, reservations, travel, etc. In addition to shopping benefits, it features a customized structure that allows users to select and use one desired service each month from a variety of digital content benefits, such as Netflix (Ad Standard), Naver Webtoon Cookies, and TVING.27 Recently, it has been continuously expanding the scope of benefits across commerce by closely linking with the 'Naver Plus Store' to fully provide membership-exclusive 'Naver Delivery' free shipping and free returns and exchanges.28

Naver Mail (네이버 메일) is an email service available to all Naver users. Each user is provided with up to 5GB of storage.

Naver News (네이버 뉴스) 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.29 It also runs Naver Enter, a subdivision focusing on entertainment news.

It began in September 2000 as a 'Shopping Agent Price Comparison' (쇼핑 에이전트 가격 비교) service that compared prices and connected online shopping malls. In 2002, 'SOHO Mall' (소호몰) was launched for small and medium-sized shopping mall operators. In 2003, 'Naver Knowledge Shopping' (네이버 지식 쇼핑) opened its doors, providing not only shopping knowledge search but also price comparison and secure purchasing all in one place. 'Shopping TV' (쇼핑TV), which partnered with major home shopping companies to provide internet-exclusive video product information, opened in 2008. In 2012, Naver launched 'Shop N' (샵N), an open market-type service where sellers could directly open their own stores, register product information, and sell products. In 2014, Naver withdrew Shop N and launched 'Store Farm' (스토어 팜), which had zero entry fees. 'Naver Pay' (네이버 페이) was implemented in 2015. In 2018, Store Farm was revamped into 'Smart Store' (스마트 스토어), which enhanced data statistics and mobile features.303132

In 2024, 'Naver Plus Store' (네이버 플러스 스토어), which recommends products using an artificial intelligence called HyperCLOVA X developed by Naver, was added to 'Naver Shopping.' The Naver Plus Store app was released on March 12, 2025.3334

With the launch of Naver Plus Store in 2025 and the strengthening of AI personalized recommendations, annual revenue in the commerce sector surged by 26.2% year-over-year.35 As of 2024, the e-commerce market share was 22.7% for Coupang and 20.7% for Naver, and the gap between the two companies is narrowing.36

It is Naver’s open market platform that was first launched in 2012 under the name 'Shop N' (샵N), changed to 'Store Farm' (스토어 팜) in 2014, and finally to 'Smart Store' (스마트 스토어) in 2018. It provides infrastructure that allows individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to easily open and operate online shopping malls without complex coding or initial setup costs. It charges relatively low payment processing fees compared to other open markets, and a strong feature is that it provides sellers with free data on traffic sources and customer behavior analysis through Naver’s proprietary data analysis tool, 'Biz Advisor' (비즈 어드바이저). Thanks to these reduced entry barriers, it has established itself as a core platform in the domestic e-commerce startup ecosystem.37

Naver Plus Store (Naver+ Store; 네이버 플러스 스토어) is Naver's independent app dedicated to shopping. It was launched as a separate app from the existing Naver Shopping in March 2025. Through enhanced AI personalized recommendations and the expansion of the N Delivery infrastructure, annual revenue in the commerce sector grew by 26.2% year-over-year,38 and it is narrowing the gap in market share with Coupang in the e-commerce market.

Naver Shopping Live (네이버 쇼핑 라이브) 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.39

PRISM Live Studio

PRISM Live Studio (프리즘 라이브 스튜디오) 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.40

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 by analyzing context instead of statistical analysis. Papago app has so far garnered over 16 million downloads.41

Search engine

As of 2024, Naver is used for most searches in South Korea.42 In 2025, Naver provided twice as many searches as Google.43

See also

See also

Notes

Notes

References

References

  1. "NAVER Company". navercorp.com (in Korean). Archived from the original on 25 July 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  2. "Brand Resources". navercorp.com (in Korean). Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  3. Sang-Hun, Choe (4 July 2007). "To outdo Google, Naver taps into Korea's collective wisdom". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 19 May 2026.
  4. "Yahoo! Answers has app babby and calls it Answers Now". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  5. Pastreich, Emanuel (18 July 2011). "Take Naver Global Today!". Korea IT Times. Archived from the original on 21 February 2019. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  6. ""네이버 블로그 21주년, 1030 비중 64%까지 확대"". 다음 - 머니투데이. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
  7. "Naver's Webtoon Entertainment shares close nearly 10% higher on Nasdaq debut". koreatimes. 28 June 2024. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  8. "네이버, 검색분야 점유율 70% 육박". 다음 - 아이뉴스24. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  9. "LINE｜라인은 언제나 사용자와 함께 합니다". line.me (in Korean). Retrieved 2 November 2024.
  10. Park, Ji-hye. "Naver Mobile's old version ends in August...'User Complaints' Continuous". 프라임경제 (in Korean). Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  11. ""투자제안서 대신 써줄래"…네이버, 대화형AI '클로바X' 베타 출시". 다음 - 디지털타임스. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
  12. Na-Young, Kim (2024). "Naver Map starts providing natural disaster information". Yonhap News.
  13. 박, 철현 (17 October 2016). "네이버, 어학사전 발전 위해 100억원 투입...'옛 사전 개정 新 사전 구축나서'". IT조선 (in Korean). Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  14. "네이버 사전". Apple App Store (in Korean). 31 July 2024. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  15. 차, 현아 (5 December 2018). ""고대 히브리어도 찾아준다"...네이버, 소수어 5종 사전 오픈". IT조선 (in Korean). Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  16. Sohn, Ji-young (22 March 2018). "Pwag, zoobs? Naver's English dictionary contains nonsense, questionable definitions". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
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  18. "네이버 지식iN". kin.naver.com. Archived from the original on 20 September 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  19. "make up to". Archived from the original on 8 April 2024. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  20. "네이버, 카페 서비스 '오류'... "긴급 점검 중"". 다음 - 파이낸셜뉴스. Retrieved 29 November 2024.
  21. Naver service history in Naver public website
  22. New user in 202 Archived 8 April 2024 at the Wayback Machine (SEDaily.com)
  23. 신, 진호 (4 May 2021). ""작심삼일 노노"라던 네이버, 사흘만에 '오늘일기챌린지' 조기종료". 서울신문 (in Korean). Archived from the original on 4 May 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  24. 최, 민영 (18 May 2021). "'작심삼일 논란' 네이버 오늘일기 24일 재개…기존 참여자만 가능". 한겨레 (in Korean). Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  25. 윤, 지혜 (4 May 2021). ""댓글달면 사진뜬다"..네이버 발표에 네티즌들 시끌시끌 – 머니투데이". 머니투데이 (in Korean). Archived from the original on 4 May 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  26. Service Introduction, Official webpage of Naver Pay
  27. "네이버플러스 스토어". mkt.naver.com (in Korean). Retrieved 29 June 2026.
  28. "[네이버플러스 멤버십] 쇼핑 최대 5% 적립부터 디지털 콘텐츠 이용권까지!". nid.naver.com (in Korean). Retrieved 29 June 2026.
  29. Choi, Hyeonseok (30 October 2024). "네이버뉴스, 언론사 입점·퇴출 심사에 '수백명 풀단' 활용 논의". Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). Retrieved 24 January 2025.
  30. 기자, 정혜윤 (12 May 2020). "네이버는 어떻게 '쇼핑'까지 장악했나". 머니투데이 (in Korean). Retrieved 29 June 2026.
  31. history (25 July 2023). "네이버 쇼핑". 사단법인 IT기자클럽 (in Korean). Retrieved 29 June 2026.
  32. "스토어팜 소개 & 가입안내 : Storefarm Guide". campaign.naver.com. Retrieved 29 June 2026.
  33. "네이버 앱에서 독립한 '네이버플러스 스토어' 출시…"AI로 무장"". zdnet.co.kr (in Korean). 12 March 2025. Retrieved 29 June 2026.
  34. https://notice.naver.com/notices/shopping/19973?page=1&pageSize=10&newNoticeHour=168&t=d
  35. ""쿠팡 긴장해야겠네"… 네이버 쇼핑 26% 폭풍 성장 이끈 '비밀 병기'의 정체" (in Korean). 6 February 2026. Retrieved 29 June 2026.
  36. 강승연 (1 March 2026). "쿠팡 VS 네이버 거래액, 격차 얼마나 좁아졌을까". 헤럴드경제 (in Korean). Retrieved 29 June 2026.
  37. "스마트스토어센터". sell.smartstore.naver.com (in Korean). Retrieved 29 June 2026.
  38. https://www.newstopkorea.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=42594
  39. "Naver Shopping Live: Live Commerce and Marketing in Korea". Growth Marketing Agency. 8 October 2024. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
  40. "PRISM Live Studio. Official". Medium. Archived from the original on 15 August 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  41. 홍지인 (4 November 2020). "네이버 파파고, 이미지 '바로번역' 기능 출시". 연합뉴스 (in Korean). Retrieved 29 October 2024.
  42. Dave, Paresh (12 November 2024). "Two Upstart Search Engines Are Teaming Up to Take on Google". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  43. Taipei, Lillian Chen (7 January 2026). "Naver doubles Google's search market share in South Korea in 2025". DIGITIMES. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
External links