Naver, nicknamed « Korea’s Google, » dominates South Korea’s search market with a 59% share versus Google’s 31%, making it one of the rare countries where a local search engine outperforms the American tech giant. The company’s market cap stands at $22 billion, roughly 40 times smaller than Google’s annual revenue. CEO Choi Soo-yeon, a Harvard-educated M&A lawyer appointed in 2022, is pushing to diversify beyond search into AI, e-commerce, and content platforms including Webtoon and Wattpad. Naver reported record revenue of 9.6 trillion won ($7.41 billion) in 2023, but its shares trade about 60% below a COVID-era high as investors worry about slowing search revenue growth and the lack of a clear growth strategy. The firm is developing Korean and Arabic language AI models to compete with U.S. giants in what Choi calls « sovereign AI. »
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