NAVER

Naver.com incorporated and launched the NAVER search portal in June 1999. It combined with Hangame and other businesses in 2000, adopted the NHN name in 2001 and listed on KOSDAQ in October 2002. Lee Hae-jin founded the company.⁠[1]

NAVER organized varied content through integrated search and developed search advertising. Knowledge iN, Blog and Café supplied Korean-language questions, answers and community information, linking user-generated content with search.⁠[2]

NAVER’s predecessor acquired search company 1noon in 2006. Jungho ShinJungho ShinJungho Shin, also known as Shin Jung-ho, is a creator of LINE and a product executive. He has served as LINE co-CEO, representative director of LINE Plus and group chief product officer of Z Holdings. LY Corporation listed him as chief product officer in its April 2026 management structure.Open the full entry joined the group during this period and moved to Japan in 2008. The Japanese team launched LINE in 2011, creating a major international product for the group.⁠[1][3]

The group established LINE PlusLINE PlusLINE Plus is a South Korea-based company established in 2013 for LINE’s international business and now a subsidiary of LY Corporation. Its teams work across engineering, product planning, design, marketing and business, cooperating with regional offices on localized services. It is distinct from the LINE app and the former LINE corporation.Open the full entry for international business in 2013. In August it completed the split between NAVER and NHN Entertainment, separating the search and internet business from Hangame gaming.⁠[1]

The group established NAVER Labs and NAVER Webtoon, followed by Naver FinancialNaver FinancialNaver Financial is the fintech subsidiary of the South Korean internet company Naver Corporation. It was spun off from Naver’s mobile payments business in November 2019 and operates the simple payment service Naver Pay (Npay) along with comparison and financial services for loans, insurance, securities, and more. In November 2025, it signed a comprehensive stock swap agreement with Upbit operator Dunamu under which Dunamu would become its wholly owned subsidiary; as of October 2026, the deal was still awaiting regulatory approval, and the swap date had been postponed to March 31, 2027.Open the full entry in 2019. It later acquired Wattpad and Poshmark, while NAVER WEBTOON listed on NasdaqNasdaqNasdaq is an exchange operator and financial technology company headquartered in New York. It runs The Nasdaq Stock Market and other markets and provides capital markets technology, regulatory technology, and data and index services. Founded in 1971, it combined with OMX AB in 2008, and in March 2026 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved its rules for trading tokenized securities.Open the full entry in June 2024, extending its digital-storytelling and commerce businesses.⁠[1]

LINE and Z Holdings completed business integration in 2021. The group reorganized further in October 2023 as LY Corporation, integrating LINE, Yahoo JapanYahoo JapanYahoo Japan refers to the Yahoo! JAPAN portal and its historical operating companies. The Japanese search and information brand became part of LY Corporation’s operations in the 2023 reorganization.Open the full entry and other entities. The LINE app continued while corporate names and legal structures changed.⁠[4]

In March 2025 Lee Hae-jin returned as chairman and Choi Soo-yeon continued as CEO. NAVER pursued On-Service AI, integrating AI into existing services, and developed North American investment and partnerships through NAVER Ventures.⁠[5][2]

NAVER announced a $10 billion AI factory plan, including a proposed $1 billion NVIDIANVIDIANVIDIA is an American semiconductor and computing technology company that provides graphics processing units, artificial intelligence infrastructure, networking interconnects, and computing software, and is listed on Nasdaq under the ticker NVDA.Open the full entry investment and up to $9 billion in infrastructure financing to be raised by Brookfield. Phased operation was planned from 2027; definitive contracting still needed to progress.⁠[6]

Its services span portals, search, advertising, commerce, maps, cloud, finance and content. Technology areas include HyperCLOVA X, spatial AI, robotics and data centers. The corporation, search portal and subsidiaries are distinct organizational levels.⁠[7]

Corporate website: https://www.navercorp.com/en/ (opens in a new window); search portal: https://www.naver.com/ (opens in a new window); official YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: https://www.youtube.com/@naverofficial (opens in a new window). Related entries include Lee Hae-jin, LINE, LINE Plus, LY Corporation and Naver Financial.⁠[7]