Naver to Invest 1 Trillion Won in Content Ecosystem Over 5 Years... "Nurturing AI Creators"

3,000 "Naver Mates" to Be Announced Monthly
Kim Kwanghyun, CDO: "Data Quality and Service Experience Are the Pillars of Competition"

Kwanghyun Kim, Chief Data and Content Officer (CDO)

Naver will invest 1 trillion won over the next five years to foster its content ecosystem as part of efforts to strengthen its artificial intelligence (AI) competitiveness. To nurture content and creators, Naver will launch the monthly “Naver Mate” program for 3,000 creators, and starting in June, officially release an AI Tab to enhance platform competitiveness based on data.

On May 28, Naver held a media roundtable at The Plaza Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, under the theme “Data & Content Strategy in the AI Era,” announcing plans to boost AI competitiveness by building an independent content ecosystem. Attendees included Kim Kwanghyun, Chief Data and Content Officer (CDO), Lee Ilkoo, Head of Content Services, and Kim Sangbeom, Head of Search Platform.

Kim Kwanghyun, CDO, stated, “The focus of AI platform competition is shifting from model performance to data quality and service competitiveness. We will expand non-technical efforts to discover quality content and creators in the AI era, investing 1 trillion won over five years.”

Kim further emphasized, “As CDO, I will leverage the creator ecosystem and external partnerships to accumulate high-quality data, which serves as the foundation for actionable agents, and connect this data with AI to deliver a differentiated user experience. We will be even bolder in this competition. Naver’s independent content ecosystem, built over more than 25 years, is its most powerful and irreplaceable asset.”

On this day, Naver announced the launch of a new fellowship program, “Naver Mate,” to expand the content ecosystem in partnership with user-generated content (UGC) creators. Initially, about 3,000 outstanding creators from across the UGC services—selected based on expertise and diversity—will be publicly recognized each month according to the number of AI Briefing citations.

The profiles and content of “Naver Mate” creators will carry an official emblem, making their work more discoverable across Naver’s various services such as integrated search and AI Briefing. Activity funding totaling 20 billion won will be provided, with individual support ranging from 300,000 won to 10 million won, determined by AI Briefing citation counts. Naver Mate will begin in June, targeting blog, café, Knowledge iN, and premium content creators, with plans to expand to clip creators in the second half of the year. Naver will operate the program in beta until the end of the year and will gradually enhance it by incorporating AI Tab answer citations and expanding the scope and scale of support.

Lee Ilkoo, Head of Content Services, said, “Even in the AI era, UGC containing creators’ real experiences and insights is a core asset that adds diversity and expertise to AI. Through the Naver Mate program, we are embarking on a journey with creators to explore the critical direction of UGC in the AI era. We will focus on service initiatives that build consensus among all users around ‘good creators and content’ to vitalize the content ecosystem.”

Naver also unveiled its technological roadmap and core assets aimed at realizing an integrated AI agent that connects various services and enables execution beyond AI search. Kim Sangbeom, Head of Search Platform, identified as core assets the product-native large language model (LLM) optimized for service scenarios, a dataset and API tools comprising 10 billion records, and “harness engineering” for stable service operation. He explained, “Our experience in building and operating the search ecosystem with proprietary technology is a unique advantage for Naver. The next-generation HyperCLOVA X model will also be applied soon.”

Naver is further advancing its AI search lineup. AI Briefing, launched in March, is currently used by 30 million people monthly, while the AI Tab, launched in beta in April, surpassed 3 million cumulative users within a month. Naver plans to launch a new version of Smart Lens at the end of June, a service that allows users to quickly obtain information and take action through the camera, which is expected to create synergy with AI Briefing and AI Tab.

Kim Sangbeom, Head of Search Platform, stated, “With the official launch of AI Tab in June, all Naver users will be able to utilize conversational search on both mobile and PC. Building on Naver’s unique assets, which best understand the daily lives and context of Korean users, we will develop agentic AI services that connect directly to real execution.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.