hankyoreh

The test version Whale

Naver’s latest attempt to challenge Google takes the form of a web browser. Naver has been vying with Google over the South Korean online search market, and in August it presented an alternative to Google’s translation tool called “Papago,” an online translation service based on artificial intelligence.

On Dec. 1, Naver launched a trial service for its web browser, called Whale. The trial service makes a beta version of the browser available to around 15,000 people who registered in advance on a first come, first served basis.

“After incorporating user feedback to put the finishing touches on the browser, we intend to make it available to everyone as early as the second half of next year. Our goal in developing this browser is to further integrate use of the internet into people’s everyday lives and to maximize the convenience of using the internet in people’s lives,” Naver said.

Naver has been developing Whale for the past five years at Naver Lab, an R&D organization that will be spun off as a subsidiary in Mar. 2017.

“We’ve designed the browser as a way to do all your work in a single window. This will be a different experience from previous web browsers such as Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer,” Naver said.

Whale splits the screen so that users can view the search engine window and the search results windows at the same time. This also eliminates the inconvenience of pop-up windows that have to be moved or closed because they cover the screen. Furthermore, the browser makes it possible to search for specific words in the search results screen by selecting them. Search terms can also be input into the address bar instead of web addresses.

Whale also comes with most of the tools that are needed for using the internet. The browser uses Papago to translate documents written in languages such as English, Chinese and Japanese into Korean, and it can also translate text in images and take screenshots.

Industry analysts believe that Naver’s strategy is to maximize advertising profits by keeping internet users more engaged while analyzing their usage patterns to fine-tune its service.

The emergence of Whale means that Naver and Google’s competition will expand into the web browser market. The companies are also expected to clash in the areas of self-driving cars and virtual secretaries, since they are pouring investment into such areas, which they have identified as new growth engines.

Naver and Google have duked it out in South Korea over online search and maps, with the spoils going to Naver. As of the end of June 2016, Naver controlled 74.4% of online search in the country, compared to Google’s share of 6.5%. Naver has also taken the lead in preventing Google from being provided with detailed map data. Meanwhile, Naver is increasing its investment in Europe. The company thinks that Europe may be an ideal site for expansion, given the strongly negative views toward Google there.

“As we have emerged as a global player following the Line IPO and as we have taken steps to join the movement toward the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it’s only natural that we have come up against multinational businesses with similar business strategies. This doesn’t mean that we are deliberately targeting Google,” said a spokesperson for Naver.

There are also signs that Google Korea is taking steps to counter Naver. During a press conference on Nov. 29, the company emphasized that it had “greatly increased the accuracy of Google Translate by using machine translation technology based on neutral networks.”

By Kim Jae-seob, senior staff writer

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