Naver FAQs
Q. What is Naver?
Naver is a South Korean online platform operated by Naver Corporation. They were the first web portal in Korea to develop and use their own search engine. Naver is also behind the most critical apps in Kpop i.e live streaming app V Live and Naver TV. They also manage mobile service LINE and video messenger SNOW.
Q. Why is Naver so popular?
Because it's so powerful. Surveys show that more than 70% of Koreans use Naver as their main news portal. Naver and Daum together are said to process over 90% of web searches by Korean users.
Q. What is a portal?
A portal is an internet page that aggregates information from various sources. i.e news, email etc. and presents it all in one homepage along with a search bar. As reflected in the name, a "portal" is a gateway to online information and services.
Q. How do portals keep users in their ecosystem?
Search engines like Google use "out links" for articles displayed on their "news" section.
In contrast, Naver hosts the article within its site using "in-links" even though articles are written by other news media. Outlets can request to have direct links to their webpage instead.
Using an unknown algorithm, portals are able to curate articles to its users based on the "topic" "views", "comments", or "reactions," a decision that can widen or restrict the number of viewers. Koreans also happen to love commenting on news articles with great passion and at times with malice. This is always a recurring source of controversy.
Q. Why did Naver make recent changes to comment and keyword search service?
In March 2020, Naver suspended their key word search functions and turned off the comment section of its entertainment articles to reduce the amount of hate comments left on Korean celebrity articles posted on the portal. Nate followed suit on July 7th. Netizens are still able to leave comments on articles posted in Naver's main news section that excludes entertainment articles.
Q. How can I contact Naver?
Naver has a support page here [in Korean/English] where you can search the site for any helpful FAQs.
Blog FAQs
Q. Why Daily Naver?
For the past 12 years my go-to sites for K-pop news has been allkpop, Soompi, and stan Twitter. These sites are great but allkpop and other news sites only translate the news that they know will get them clicks to their sites not the articles that are trending daily in Korea.
With this blog, I plan to focus on top ranked articles that highlight topics that truly impact Korean society, life, culture etc. that have cause-effect relationship with K-pop and more.
Q. Why do you mainly source from Naver?
Naver has one of the biggest and fastest moving communities out of the top three portal sites. Most of the articles in Korea are shared on this portal.
Naver also has the most "real netizens" compared to Nate, as users are required to create accounts before leaving a comment. Nate users can post anonymously and thus heavily frequented by haters/trolls.
Q. What is the difference between Nate, Naver, and Daum?
Naver is most well-known for its blogging platform Naver blog.
Nate is most known for its forum community, Pann.
Daum is most frequented for its idol fan-cafes.
Q. Can online comments actually sway public opinion?
Yes. Most definitely. Netizens play a huge role in the decision-making processes of companies and artists in the Korean entertainment industry. Agencies will actually pay media outlets to write positive articles and comments about their artists to manufacture a "positive image." This is referred to as "media play" in K-pop. Netizens have a cause-effect relationship with the media.
Q. Can I re-post or translate your posts in another language?
Sure, go ahead. Please remember to credit.
Q. How can we contact you?
You can send me your thoughts, tips, suggestions etc. using the 'Contact Form' here.