Cutting-edge services bring Naver success overseas

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Cutting-edge services bring Naver success overseas

Naver is forging through the era of isolation with its innovative online services, such as Naver Webtoon. [NAVER]

Naver is forging through the era of isolation with its innovative online services, such as Naver Webtoon. [NAVER]

Naver is on its way to becoming a global IT conglomerate as its number of overseas users continues to rise. The success of Naver, which has been recognized by both Fortune and Forbes, is due to the various services it provides.

Naver Webtoon has 10 million monthly active users in the United States where webtoons are still a fairly new concept.

Naver is also promoting exports of Korean webtoons as well as fostering new artists in overseas markets. As more and more webtoons enter the mainstream and other media platforms, like animations and Netflix dramas, it is easy to see Naver’s success.

Naver’s live community platform V Live is also gaining popularity, reaching 100 million total downloads since its launch in 2015.

After the cancelation of offline performances due to the Covid-19 pandemic, V Live saw its number of online concerts and fan meetings surge 2.6 times on year. Online purchases such as memberships and sales of virtual goods rose 1.9 times and 2.2 times respectively.

With 85 percent of users outside of Korea, V Live aims to provide a stable network environment with better video and audio quality to fans all over the world.

Social network community service Naver Band is also gaining momentum. After reaching 130 million downloads worldwide, Naver Band also saw 2.5 million monthly active users in the United States, proving its worth as a group communication application where online gatherings can be held.

With 78,000 new groups and 1.33 million new users this year, Naver Band is a force to be reckoned with during the contactless era of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Naver also knows how to make sure people have fun online. Naver Zepeto, an online avatar creation service, managed to gain 200 million global users, 80 percent of whom are teenagers.

With its strong user base, Zepeto was able to clinch investments and collaboration projects from numerous global companies such as Nike, Converse and SM Entertainment, cementing its potential for future development.

To match its rapid globalization, Naver released English-learning application Cake to set its own course on education platform development.

Now counting 50 million downloads worldwide, Cake supports 13 language courses. The future looks bright for the app considering the growing online education market and its Google Play success already in Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

By Ahn Tae-lahm [ahn.taelahm@joongang.co.kr]
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