‘58.14%’
is Naver’s share of the domestic search engine market (accounted until August 22 this year). Although it maintains the No. 1 position, its dominance has decreased significantly compared to the 80% market share in 2015. The reason why Naver’s status has shrunk is because the means of finding information, such as YouTube and Instagram, have changed, centering on the MZ generation (born between 1980 and 2000). According to Internet Trends, a website analysis company, Naver’s search share has been maintaining 50-60% since falling to 50% in 2020.
The stock price also does not flow well. Naver stock price, which took 400,000 won at the end of 2021, is currently staying at 200,000 won. In the midst of this, Naver unveiled ‘HyperClova X’, a large-scale language model ( LLM ) classified as a super-giant artificial intelligence ( AI ) through the ‘ DAN 23’ conference at the Grand Intercontinental Seoul Parnas in Samseong-dong, Seoul on the 24th. . Naver expects that the generative AI business will serve as an opportunity to lead Naver’s fourth transition period following competition with search, mobile conversion, e-commerce, and social. Attention is focusing on whether generative AI will further solidify Naver’s leading position. Kim Myung-joo Seoul Women’s University Barun AI
The head of the research center said, “Google, the world’s No. 1 search engine company, is launching ‘Bard’ and Microsoft ( MS ), which is No. 2, is waging a search war with ‘Bing . ‘ said. It is a story that you have to do generative AI not only to take away the market share but also not to be pushed further.
Indigenous generative AI competing with Big Tech … Needs more than language differentiation
Since Open AI introduced Chat GPT for the first time in November last year, a war for supremacy in generative AI between big techs is taking place. In the United States, Google, Meta, Tesla, Apple, Nvidia, and Amazon, in addition to MS , and Baidu and Alibaba in China jumped into the development of super-giant AI . The Korean AI competition is also fierce. In Korea, following Naver’s release of HyperClova X, Kakao plans to introduce ‘ko ( ko ) GPT 2.0’ within this year, KT (faith) , SK Telecom (Adot) , LG (Exaone), NCsoft (Bar) K) also scrambled to preoccupy the market by introducing LLM . LLM is a foundational technology of generative AI that creates new outputs with AI pre-learned data . Theoretically, Naver is a global big tech generative AI that asks a question in Korean, translates it and inputs it, and the answer is also translated and returned.
It is said that it takes more time and money to run more GPU (graphics processing unit). It is a story that Big Tech’s generative AI uses more tokens than native generative AI through the translation process. A token is the smallest unit of a corpus. If there are many tokens, the calculation time and process of generative AI increase. Naver explains that native generative AI has a large number of Korean language learning data. It is known that HyperClovaX learned Korean 6,500 times more than Chat GPT . It is a story that HyperClova X is better at Korean than Big Tech’s generative AI , as well as having strengths in Korean culture and contextual idioms. Experts say that in the generative AI market , which requires capital power, it is difficult for domestic companies to achieve great results by sticking to an all-out battle with foreign big tech companies. Considering that the super-giant AI is a self-learning structure, it is difficult to secure a difference just by learning more Korean and using less tokens based on current standards. Professor Emeritus Kim Jin-hyung of KAIST said, “Meta is artificial intelligence ( AI) that interprets and translates over 100 languages.
) model, there is a need for a differentiating factor other than simply being good at Korean,” he said.
Hyperclova X, extensive service data strength… to target third countries other than the United States
The data accumulated over 24 years is expected to be a differentiator for Naver. Choi Soo-yeon, CEO of Naver, also emphasized that Naver is a unique platform that encompasses search, shopping, maps, reservations, intellectuals, reviews, payments, blogs, cafes, and payments on one platform. The large scope and quantity of services means that it is possible to accumulate high-quality data, and updated data can be the core of competitiveness in the era of generative AI 안전놀이터. Kyung-Jeon Lee, professor of business administration at Kyung Hee University, said, “Chat GPT is not a portal service, but an independent service, and Google is a company that only focuses on search, while Naver provides all kinds of services in the domestic market.” This will be large, but if it is okay, it will blend well with the existing service and show the scalability of the service.”
There was also an opinion that a strategic approach is needed rather than a head-to-head match with Big Tech. Kim Myeong-joo, director of the Barun AI Research Center at Seoul Women’s University, said, “Naver’s generative AI may have difficulty catching up with English, but it is expected that it will respond more accurately and better in Korean . ” In a difficult situation, it would be okay to approach with K-culture as the center, focusing on third countries that do not prefer American companies.”
Experts say Naver’s generative AI is B2BNaver’s search market share recovery is expected to depend on how well it permeates B2C (business-to-consumer transaction) and C2C (consumer-to- consumer transaction ) as well as business-to-business (business-to-business). CEO Choi Soo-yeon said, “We are aware that there are concerns about Naver’s search market share and weakening competitiveness,” but added, “We believe that internally, we are firmly maintaining, but we will be able to strengthen our market share and competitiveness through generative AI . ” .