 |
Soo-Yeon Choi, CEO of Naver. (Photo: Yonhap News) |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] Naver solidified its position as South Korea’s leading search engine, surpassing 60% market share in 2025. According to InternetTrend, Naver’s domestic search share averaged 62.86% last year, up 4.72 percentage points from 58.14% in 2024. This marks the first time in three years that Naver’s share exceeded 60% since 2022.
Google maintained second place with a 29.55% share, down 3.45 percentage points from the previous year, widening the gap with Naver. Microsoft’s Bing grew slightly from 2.91% to 3.12%, while Daum dropped from 3.72% to 2.94%. Other search platforms, including Zoom and Yahoo, remained below 1% share.
Industry observers attribute Naver’s rebound to technological initiatives enhancing search reliability. In particular, Naver’s AI-powered search features, such as the “AI Briefing” launched in October 2025 for health-related queries, have increased user engagement. The AI Briefing summarizes information from credible sources including tertiary hospitals, public institutions, and academic societies.
In November, Naver introduced a “Securities Information AI Briefing,” providing users with easy access to corporate updates, earnings reports, and professional content. These innovations have contributed to higher search activity and reinforced Naver’s dominance in the domestic search market.
Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
