Naver's Search Engine Market Share Rebounds in First Half... Will 'AI Tab' Make an Impact?

In the first half of this year, Naver's share of the domestic search engine market increased compared to the second half of last year. The company appears to be expanding its influence in the domestic search engine market through artificial intelligence (AI)-based services such as 'AI Tab.'

According to the internet usage statistics site 'Internet Trend' on July 12, Naver's share of the domestic search market in the first half of this year (January 1 to June 30) was 64.28%. This represents a 2.46 percentage point increase from the previous half-year, when it recorded 61.82%.

In contrast, Google's market share declined slightly. Google's share in the first half of this year was 28.37%, down 2.32 percentage points from the previous half-year. The gap between Naver and Google had narrowed to 31.13 percentage points in the second half of last year, but widened to 35.91 percentage points in just six months.

Microsoft's Bing, boosted by the addition of an AI chatbot, saw its share rise slightly from 3.13% in the previous half-year to 3.84% in the first half of this year. Meanwhile, Daum, which changed ownership from Kakao to Upstage, saw its share decrease from 3.03% to 2.9%.

Naver is strengthening the integration of AI into search to enhance its search competitiveness. Recently, Naver officially rolled out its conversational AI search service, AI Tab, to all users across PC and mobile platforms and began sequential updates. The company officially launched AI Tab just about two months after starting its beta service for Naver Plus Membership users in April.

AI Tab is a conversational search service that understands users' search intent and context, expanding the scope of exploration through continuous dialogue. Unlike traditional search, which displayed results in list form, users can now find tailored information through conversation.

With this update, the 'Green Dot,' which had symbolized Naver's mobile search for eight years since 2018, has disappeared into history. Its place has been taken by a blue-toned AI Tab button.

Naver plans to further monetize AI Tab by introducing an advertising model during the fourth quarter of this year.

Industry observers believe that as AI search competition intensifies, AI Tab will act as a variable in the future competition for search market share. Google is already offering Korean language services such as 'AI Overview (Summary)' and 'AI Mode (Conversational),' and Daum also plans to provide similar services.

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