Naver to enter Japan in SEARCH market

been there with games and flopped but search may be differen story

[GrendelKhan TSU]

Hey bill! word is NHN is going to Japan with their search technology...

and probably will pushing "combined search" results (see the Alternate SERPs and beyond thread) given the similar situation of such varied and rich content in Japan.

whatcha think?

[bill]

Didn't they just get done leaving Japan?

• Naver Japan to stop service [webmasterworld.com] (January 31, 2005)

[GrendelKhan TSU]

gluttons for punishment?

NHN, Korea's leading Internet company, is planning to make a foray into the Japanese search market late next year, according to its chief executive Chae Hwi-young Wednesday.

``We aim to open beta services with a new search engine in Japan, possibly late next year,'' Chae said

article [search.hankooki.com]

but here's the weird part... considering it is in DIRECT contrast to the dec 2005 thread:

NHN has operated a host of overseas businesses but all of them are online games and the company has never advanced into another country with its own search engine.

so like...is there anyway to confirm which it was? did they have search there or not?

[bill]

Naver had search alright. They had their own robot [webmasterworld.com] for Japan. The portal side did seem to get the most attention, but search was a component of their former presence here. Maybe they're trying to erase something from their past. ;)

[GrendelKhan TSU]

did they have "combined search"?

maybe that's going to be their push this time like the article says (but who knows how accurate that speculation is).

[bill]

I'm not familiar with "combined search". It's likely they're coming to market with a new engine, but it's interesting that they're making announcements in this manner. Some of us remember that they were here before...and failed.

[GrendelKhan TSU]

you might remember "combined search" from this thread... To alternate SERPS and beyond [webmasterworld.com]

the SERP is loooooooooooooooong with a section for just about everything.

and the point which caught everyone's attention at the time was that web search was wwwwwwwwway down the list and one of the lesser popular types of search in korea.

[GrendelKhan TSU]

well it seems at least its game division does just fine.

Hangame, the online game portal introduced by Korea's NHN. It has maintained its No.1 position [in Japan] for years in the sector with some 19 million registered users, and the number is increasing.

article [search.hankooki.com]

[bill]

Yeah, gamers are an entirely different market. They don't care about where the company comes from as long as it has the features they want. The general public can be a bit more fickle.

Naver must have an entirely new system in the works if it's going to take until the end of 2007 to roll out this new product. It will be interesting to see what features they include. It's going to have to be a bit more dramatic than what they offered previously.