‘Naver’ Mind Google if You Live in South Korea
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Written By Drupad Sil | July 5, 2007 | Share This
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Despite being the world’s top search engine, Google.com fields just 1.7% of South Korean web searches, according to a New York Times article. So what are the people in one of the world’s most tech and web-embedded countries using for queries? Enter Naver.com, South Korea’s #1 web portal since its launch in 1999.
Set up eight years ago by online gaming company NHN, Naver was originally launched as a pure search engine. However, developers found that there was not enough Korean text on the web to make a Korean-based search engine viable, and made the decision to allow users to create their own database through Naver.
The results have been stunning. In a country of 48 million, where more than 70% use the internet, Naver handles more than 77% of searches originating in South Korea. Its nearest competitor, South Korean search portal Daum.com, handles a relatively meager 10.8%, outpacing third-place Yahoo.com, which has 4.4% of the market share.
Naver’s unique community-based approach to search is the keystone if its success. Each day, Naver.com receives an average of 16 million users, who make 110 million queries. Knowledge iN, Naver’s user-generated Answers service, gets about 44,000 questions and 110,000 answers daily. Though the novelty of contributing content is a big part of Naver’s popularity, Naver has primarily succeeded because it fills a gap in the market; namely, the lack of Korean language pages on the internet.
Topics: Search: Innovations |