The Naver Corp. site arranged on a screen in Gimpo, South Korea on Sept. 9, 2021.
SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
Although artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT pose a threat to the look for advert sector, South Korean world wide web large Naver sees the increase of AI as an opportunity for the firm.
Naver is South Korea’s most made use of research engine, in accordance to Statista, commanding a 61.2% current market share of month-to-month energetic buyers. In contrast, the at any time ubiquitous Google has a 28.55% current market share in the place.
AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT pose a risk to search engines as they are able to present responses to users’ inquiries straight, instead of presenting a listing of webpages that the user has to search by means of to uncover an answer.
This could guide to a more rapidly search approach for the person — assuming all the information and facts offered is right.
If much less individuals use search engines, that would lead to a decrease in research ad earnings, typically the premier earnings stream for their operators. In 2022, Alphabet created around 57% of its profits, or $162 billion, from Google searches on your own.
Whilst Naver, like Google, also largely operates a search motor, it also has other organization units, this sort of as its written content system Naver Webtoon and multimedia cell application Snow, fintech arm Naver Pay and an e-commerce platform in Naver Buying.
Talking to CNBC’s Chery Kang in South Korea, Kim claims AI will be a “huge opportunity” for each and every of its businesses, “no matter if it truly is enhanced look for [results], whether it is really [an] increased shopping working experience, regardless of whether it’s fintech or even when it comes to Webtoon recommendations, or even Webtoon illustration applications.”
He thinks that AI will only reinforce Naver’s choices, pointing out that “AI is anything that’s not international to us, but it is quite important to each individual of our enterprises.”
In phrases of the consumer expertise, Kim claims an AI-driven Naver would mean an improved search encounter, buying expertise as very well as travel recommendations for consumers.
He believes that Naver is the greatest go-to internet site in terms of travel itinerary searches. “So to the extent that AI can truly superior that working experience, I imagine it can be a match changer for the person.”
In its 1st-quarter earnings presentation, Naver unveiled that the business is set to launch its “hyperscale AI” products, named HyperCLOVA X this summer season. The enterprise reported it would “deliver generative AI-pushed search for people and new custom-made solutions for enterprises.”
More than the initial quarter, the company’s revenue rose 23.6% 12 months-on-yr to 2.28 trillion won (1.72 billion), but its net gain tumbled 71.2% to 43.7 billion gained when compared with the very same time period past calendar year. Operating income stood at 330.5 billion gained, a 9.5% enhance yr-on-calendar year.
Shares of Naver were being trading 1.93% larger on Tuesday, creating on their 5.56% get Monday after the organization introduced benefits in the morning.
