Naver to drive greater transformation with AI at its core

CEO Choi Soo-yeon

Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon announced plans for significant transformations across the company‘s services in 2025, with artificial intelligence (AI) as the central focus. Reflecting on the challenges of 2024, she also expressed gratitude to employees for their dedication to ensuring service stability amid internal and external uncertainties.

In an internal newsletter on Wednesday, Choi remarked, “2024 was a year when we worked as one to reclaim our competitiveness.” She described the year as a period of introspection, where the company critically assessed its services, technologies, and products to determine how to become the first choice for its users.

Choi highlighted major achievements from the past year, including the launch of the short-form video service Clip and the streaming platform CHZZK, as well as advancements in advertising, search, maps, and the Plus Store. “Despite significant turmoil, we successfully concluded the year thanks to the employees who safeguarded Naver and worked tirelessly day and night to ensure the stability of our infrastructure and services,” she said.

For 2025, Choi outlined AI and global expansion as the company’s key priorities. She emphasized plans to implement “on-service AI,” a concept she introduced during Naver’s November conference, Dan24. This initiative aims to integrate AI technology seamlessly into all Naver services, including search, maps, and shopping, to revolutionize user experiences. “With our experience navigating the mobile era through the company-in-company (CIC) system, it is now time to adopt new structures and approaches to meet the demands of the AI era,” Choi said.

Addressing global markets, Choi affirmed that Naver will continue expanding its webtoon, Works, and robotics services in Japan while broadening its reach into the United States, Europe, and Saudi Arabia.

The CEO also reflected on the governance issues surrounding Line Yahoo, a joint venture with SoftBank, that emerged in March 2024. She described the situation as a meaningful opportunity to restructure the collaboration in alignment with local market needs, emphasizing the company’s commitment to maintaining a long-term strategic perspective.