Google Vs. Naver: Why Can't Google Dominate Search in Korea?

[bill]

Google Vs. Naver: Why Can't Google Dominate Search in Korea? [link-assistant.com]

Although Google presently holds 83% of the global search market, there are countries that have been consistently slipping out of its grip. One such country is Korea, South Korea to be exact. Ask any Korean what search engine they use, and, most likely, the answer will be... Naver.

[edited by: engine at 8:32 am (utc) on May 23, 2012]
[edit reason] fixed formating [/edit]

[Olney]

If Google buys Daum they can compete.
Or get Daum to replace it's search technology with Google's.

[bill]

Interesting. What are the odds of that happening? I'd think the latter might be more of an appealing option.

[Olney]

I also think the later is a possibility.
Once I saw Yahoo! Japan switch to using Google search technology & having their ad platform built by Google I started to think anything is possible.

[bill]

Is the Korean market still as gung-ho about using local companies in terms of search? Would the foreign nature of Google turn them off?

[Olney]

They are from what I see but Daum is powered by Overture Korea (Yahoo old technology). They'll need a solution at some point.

[bill]

I haven't looked at Korea search much recently, but they were always so full of bells and whistles related to their online communities that pure search didn't seem to be as important. Perhaps they can tough it out a bit longer on the old Overture technology?