U.S. Futures Steady as Rate-Cut Bets Rise on Soft Labor Data 
BOJ Faces Pressure for Clarity, but Neutral Rate Estimates Likely to Stay Vague 
Magnum Audit Flags Governance Issues at Ben & Jerry’s Foundation Ahead of Spin-Off 
Firelight Launches as First XRP Staking Platform on Flare, Introduces DeFi Cover Feature 
Trump Administration to Secure Equity Stake in Pat Gelsinger’s XLight Startup 
Dollar Holds Steady as Markets Shift Focus to 2026 Rate Cut Expectations 
GM Issues Recall for 2026 Chevrolet Silverado Trucks Over Missing Owner Manuals 
Proxy Advisors Urge Vote Against ANZ’s Executive Pay Report Amid Scandal Fallout 
China’s Services Sector Posts Slowest Growth in Five Months as Demand Softens 
UPS MD-11 Crash Prompts Families to Prepare Wrongful Death Lawsuit 
ExxonMobil to Shut Older Singapore Steam Cracker Amid Global Petrochemical Downturn 
Oil Prices Hold Steady as Ukraine Tensions and Fed Cut Expectations Support Market 
EU Prepares Antitrust Probe Into Meta’s AI Integration on WhatsApp 
China Urged to Prioritize Economy Over Territorial Ambitions, Says Taiwan’s President Lai 
Anthropic Reportedly Taps Wilson Sonsini as It Prepares for a Potential 2026 IPO 
Naver Corporation is investing KRW5.2 billion, or about $3.6 million, for a joint research project with Wattpad and the University of Toronto. It was reported that the investments would be used over the next five years for research on AI-based content service platforms.
Naver confirmed the financing scheme on Monday, Oct. 1. Wattpad has recently become part of the Naver group after the completion of its acquisition deal in May of last year. The two are set to work with the said public research university located in Ontario, Canada.
Wattpad is also based in Canada even after it was acquired by the South Korean tech and internet giant for an estimated value of $600 million. It was agreed that the storytelling platform would remain headquartered in the country, and its founders, Ivan Yuen and Allen Lau, have also retained their leadership.
As per The Korea Herald, Naver purchased Wattpad after seeing its huge potential. The latter’s app has more than 90 million users around the world, and they are said to be spending more than 23 billion minutes per month reading original stories and content.
The latest joint research that will be participated in by Naver, Wattpad, and the University of Toronto will allow the application of groundbreaking and exclusive technologies to Wattpad’s content platform. This is expected to improve the user experience and attract more sign-ups.
Some of the specific scopes of studies that will be undertaken in the research include Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Through this, they will develop technology that will assess content for recommendations to users based on their similar content interests or reading habits.
“Naver’s mega-scale technology capacity and infrastructure in AI would create synergy with the Unversity of Toronto’s professional capacity in AI technology and the world’s largest web-based literature platform Wattpad,” Naver’s AI Lab head, Ha Jung Woo, said in a statement.
He added, “We will create a more interactive user experience by developing a platform that can deeply understand user preferences, based on AI technology, which would then give freedom to create high-quality content.”
