AI Tech Reshapes Search and News Portal Landscape

AI technology has boosted Naver's search market share, but news consumption is shifting towards video platforms like YouTube. Since Naver launched its AI tab beta service, its domestic search market share has risen to 66.34%, a 2.52 percentage point increase from before the launch (63.82%). Naver successfully absorbed search demand by closely integrating the AI tab with its existing search infrastructure and lifestyle services such as shopping, places, and reservations, encouraging user engagement. The AI tab, focused on conversational information discovery, surpassed 3 million monthly active users within its first month as a beta service, with a positive feedback rate for answers reaching 71%.

Naver is moving towards monetization by introducing advertising in its AI Briefing section starting July 21st and plans to expand AI Briefing's coverage to approximately 40% of all search queries by the end of the year. Naver is seeking differentiation from overseas AI services by leveraging its strengths: vast content produced by about 20 million creators and hyper-local data integrated with services like shopping and finance.

In contrast, the center of gravity for news consumption has shifted from portals to YouTube's recommendation algorithms. YouTube's news usage rate stands at 49%, a high figure recorded in both surveys by the Korea Press Foundation (30.0%) and the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (49%).