[By NBC-1TV H. J Yook]In the 1990s, South Koreans, who were quite used to PC communications Chollian, HiTEL, and Nownuri, encountered ‘Yahoo Korea’ for the first time in 1997. Afterwards, Yahoo Korea demonstrated its power as a ‘portal dinosaur ’ with nearly 80% market share until the early 2000s. However, it plummeted to 0.25% in 2012 after being defeated by ‘NHN(It operates the Naver portal)’ that featured knowledge search since 2002, forcing Yahoo Korea to withdraw from the South Korean market.

After launching a commercial website in 1999 while studying abroad, I tried to register it with search engine of Yahoo Korea. To make it appear on the top search results, I asked all around to get in touch with a Yahoo Korea official in charge. However, the company was thoroughly blocked from customers, as if it were hidden behind the Iron Curtain. It took a lot of work until I finally reached a Yahoo search official and registered my website. Afterwards, I recall feeling really good when my website appeared first on the search results since October 2000, which led to tremendous sales. However, Yahoo Korea that had thoroughly blocked its access to customers and dealt with them rather arrogantly came across to me as a ‘dinosaur.’

Naver launched its search ad business in 2001 while expanding its market share with knowledge search. I also began to put paid ads at Naver in the early 2000s. When I first encountered Naver search ads, I was absolutely impressed. Customers were also satisfied with products advertised through paid ads on the internet, where scams and false information are prevalent. It indicates that reliability of products advertised via offline media such as TV, radio, and newspaper was also applied to cyberspace. As a result, the success of Naver was guaranteed, which made me tempted to buy the company stocks, although I never buy any shares.

My Naver search ad was extremely profitable. As advertisers heard through word-of-mouth that Naver search ads are a ‘gold mine,’ Naver has attracted numerous advertisers since the mid 2000s, like a ‘gold rush.’ However, as competition among advertisers became fierce, profitability of the search ads plummeted. Whereas Naver was enjoying its maximized sales, advertisers were struggling with dwindling profits from ads.

I once called a Naver ad official at the headquarters to request a brand search ad in 2011. However, the response was that advertisers without an advertising agency are not entitled to place ads, according to Naver policy. When I strongly complained that it is a discrimination against direct advertisers, the employee promised to find out more about it and get back to me. But I held out little hope, assuming that the company policy of ‘offering brand search ads only to advertising agencies’ would never change.

However, I was told by the Naver employee a few days later that the company policy was changed to offer brand search ads to direct advertisers after a review. I was really surprised. The fact that a big corporation like Naver changed its policy based on one advertiser’s opinion demonstrates that it is not a ‘dinosaur enterprise.’ I was even intimidated by the fast innovative movement of a company that changes like a chameleon, and it had no arrogance of ‘dinosaur,’ as a giant with over 70% market share. It got me thinking that “No one could beat Naver.”

In November 2011, I attended that invited around 200 VIP advertisers. Among them, I was selected as one of eleven 'Advertisers with Naver Keyword Ad Success,’ and my company video was played in front of everyone.

As far as I know, events conducted by corporations or government agencies are only joined by a handful of relevant officials and top officials. In addition, most of such events are conducted by event planners and celebrated by only a small number of people from the organizers.

However, NHN’s event was joined by lots of its employees, as if half of the attendees was Naver employees, while the other half was advertisers. Furthermore, all advertisers were joined by Naver employees at each table who talked to them in a friendly manner, doing their best to serve them.

During the event, I asked about ‘Facebook’ and ‘KakaoTalk’ to a Naver employee at my table. “New social networking services are a threat to Naver.” He really seemed to care about the future of Naver.

Domestic market share of NHN is now absolutely remarkable. It accounts for 78% of the online search market and over 80% of the entire search ad sales. The operating profit margin ratio is 29%, which is higher than Apple’s 26%. Nearly monopolized market share of NHN has led to increasing criticisms recently after concerns from outsiders.

Following harsh criticisms from the media and politicians with comments such as ‘dinosaur portal Naver ’ and ‘reckless expansion of Naver, ’ government departments including the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and Fair Trade Commission geared up for strong regulations. It has escalated into a war on the reputation of NHN between its supporters and opponents, both online and offline.

However, my impression is that Naver is not a dinosaur or reckless. There is a famous quote from a legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” Naver is always very active like a butterfly. No matter how high its market share is or how much it earns with enormous sales, it never gets stagnant. Rather, it becomes even more active. Naver is a genius at transforming itself like a chameleon. We call it ‘innovation.’ Some have denounced Naver as a copycat that has stolen the ideas of small and medium sized companies. However, nothing is truly original in today’s era. Naver is engaging in fierce competition to survive, like most other companies.