Naver Reportedly Losing Market Share in Online Search Industry

Naver internet platform is reportedly losing its share in the search engine market in South Korea. It was the very first web portal that later became the largest internet company in the country, but with the arrival of more competitors, the number of its users started to shrink, resulting in reduced market share.

The Korea Times reported that Naver has been dominant in the local search engine since it was first launched more than 20 years ago. But after the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot services like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Bard, and Microsoft's Bing AI, more and more users are shifting as they are more convenient to use. As a result, the company's market share rating is going down.

Aside from using AI chatbots for their online searches, people are also turning to YouTube and other platforms that offer personalized search services for their search activities on the web. These practices are moving people away from Naver since they have found a more convenient tool.

Based on the available data from Internet Trend, a market tracker, Naver Corp's share in the South Korean search engine industry is 51.49% as of May 28. It was pointed out that the rating shows a big drop of 13.32% since Dec. 31, 2022, when the number was at 64.81%.

Industry experts said that people are shifting to generative AI services because search engines are now adopting them. The technology is being integrated into web portals, so users are getting into the trend by using the latest features that search engines have to offer.

"The landscape of the search engine market is becoming more complex and competitive due to the increasing availability of search on various platforms such as YouTube and Instagram as well as Google and Microsoft," an official at a local IT company commented.

In any case, CNBC already reported earlier this month that AI could threaten the search market. But at that time, it said that while the chatbots such as ChatGPT pose a threat to the search industry, Naver sees them in a positive light and considers them an opportunity instead. However, with the recent development, the company may be realizing now that chatbots are indeed a threat after all.

Photo by: Naver PR Center