Naver plans 10 billion won investment in science data

Naver, the nation’s largest portal service provider, said it will invest 10 billion won ($8.9 billion) over four years in basic science-related content development to add academic depth to its encyclopedia service.

The company said it inked partnerships with 12 academic associations in fields of basic science such as chemistry, biology and earth science to support creation and distribution of in-depth science content through its portal.

Naver said high demand was the major driver for the investment.

“From 2015, we have offered an encyclopedia of mathematics in hand with Korea Mathematics Society and found out there’s high demand for content related to basic studies from our users,” said Kim Seon-ok, who leads Naver’s encyclopedia service. “We will also provide an authoring tool to experts in the field so they can freely create and update content in the platform by communicating directly with users.”

The authoring tool will enable experts to create, edit and manage content on the web, according to Naver. It means experts can more responsively update their content on user feedbacks.

Part of Naver’s investment will also be used to enhance visual and audio features of the encyclopedia service by adding images and video to the information, considering the recent trend of data consumption through multimedia content.

The content developed and distributed through Naver will be open for public use, including secondary research.

“Systematizing knowledge distribution in the fields of basic studies is a must to prepare for a technology-driven future society,” said Lee Deok-hwan, vice chairman of the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies and also a professor of physical chemistry at Sogang University. “I expect the bountiful knowledge accumulated by local researchers will be of help to a larger number of people when organized and distributed with the support of Naver.”

Academic partners include Korean Chemical Society, the Korean Physical Society, the Korean Society of Integrative Biology and the Korean Astronomical Society.

Naver has also been beefing up investments in artificial intelligence-driven future drivers and content recently. Shares of Naver surged 6.48 percent on Tuesday to close at 871,000 won.

BY KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]