April 27, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Naver will focus its energies in 2018 on providing technical support for creators and sellers using its platform to connect “more deeply” with users, the company‘s CEO said at a forum on Feb. 21.

At the third annual “Naver Connect” conference held at the Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas on Feb. 21, Naver’s chief executive Han Seong-sook told a crowd of content creators and small businesses selling through Naver that 2017 had been a year in which Naver “truly felt the responsibility of being a platform distributing countless information,” and said that the company will “provide smart tools that are easy to use and improve technologies for connecting with users to create more opportunities.” 

In particular, Naver is looking to make more use of artificial intelligence this year in connection with its search and shopping services following an organizational reshuffle that combined the company‘s search and AI teams. The creation of the new Search & Clova team allows Naver’s creators and small business sellers to connect directly to Naver‘s vast user base, regardless of which platform they are using to provide their services. 

Last year, Naver revealed its artificial intelligence platform Clova, which can currently be utilized by Naver users both in the online space and offline, through partnerships with various voice-activated speakers from companies such as LG.

Naver used AI last year to improve its visual and voice-activated search functions. According to the company, voice searches grew by 40 times after the release of Clova, allowing Naver to accumulate big data about what kinds of AI needs users had across various devices including smart speakers, smartphones, and set-top boxes.

For sellers this year, Naver will be using their experience in artificial intelligence to better analyze product photos and offer recommendations for tags, recommend related products and allow payments to be made through voice recognition. For content creators, Naver will be offering a “PRISM Live Studio,” allowing creators to stream their content live smoothly to a global audience.

By Won Ho-jung/The Korea Herald (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)