Being in charge of your true passion
Being in charge of your true passion
NAVER | Service & Business | Cho Min-hyeong
NAVER Blog has established itself as an integral part of people’s day-to-day life. 20 years after the service was first launched, it is once again at the forefront of the trend. 76% of new users are Millennials or Gen Z, and they are playing a critical role in generating 300 million blog posts in 2022 alone - it is fair to say that NAVER Blog is enjoying yet another prime time.
Cho Min-hyeong, who is in her sixth year working on product development for NAVER Blog, is a Millennial and a blogger of 13 years herself. She is a true fan of NAVER’s blog service and has continuously been blogging long before she joined NAVER. Needless to say, she has a soft spot for the service she is in charge of. Because she understands the users’ need for the snippets of their day-to-day life to be there for years to come, she wishes for NAVER Blog to continue to grow more than anyone else. The strong sense of responsibility she has for the service comes from her years of passion for using NAVER Blog herself.
Tell us about your work.
I joined NAVER in the summer of 2017, and have been with the Blog team ever since. I took part in product development for different projects like Moment, and am currently in charge of product planning and operation for SmartEditor.
We’ve been told that this work is your dream come true.
It was my dream to work at a tech company. I was that kid who was interested in tech and computer programs, and using website builders to create websites has been my hobby since I was in elementary school. I came to Seoul when I was in college to try out many new things, and started my career as a web product developer at a gaming company. I think that’s when I was able to experience a wider range of different services more in-depth.
But my ultimate goal has always been product development for the NAVER Blog service - creating an online space where users could record and share their day-to-day life. I’ve been a fan of the NAVER Blog service for such a long time, and I always wanted to be in charge of the service I loved for a long time. I remember telling everyone around me that I love NAVER Blog, and that I was going to work for the NAVER Blog team one day. And here I am doing what I’ve always wanted to do, so you could really say that this is my dream come true.
Blogging is extremely popular among Millennials and Gen Z these days. Do you feel the difference?
I think I feel the change even more with my skin because I’ve been such a longtime user of the blog service. The nature of the posts that are uploaded on NAVER Blog is changing. I definitely see more posts from users in their teens and 20s, with shorter posts resembling journal entries.
There used to be many blog reviews targeted at providing information in the past, as evidenced by the fact that a “power blogger” was the first thing that came to people’s minds when they thought of a “blogger.” Those were the days when you saw bloggers taking professional photos with DSLR cameras and writing long posts that started with “Let us visit so-and-so today.” and “Today, I’d like to show you so-and-so.”
These days, we see not just blog posts aimed at providing specific information, but also records of people’s everyday life. Adorable posts that remind you of journal entries, such as “Today was a good day.” and “What I had for lunch today was FIRE.” Pictures they upload would also be nothing too fancy, with no edits done. Blog posts are definitely changing.
When was the defining moment of your career?
I believe times are always changing fast. Striking the right balance between incorporating trends into our service and being perseverant enough to maintain the existing service is always hard. In particular, our blog service needs to be reviewed often before any change is made because it is a classic service with a sturdy foundation. In that regard, the Moment project was the turning point in my career.
In short, Moment is a “short-form video service.” Users can easily edit and upload photos and videos from “this moment, here and now.” Videos can be taken in portrait mode, and users can add a lot of information like place and shopping on top of the video. The Moment project was integrating an entirely new service into NAVER Blog. We were introducing videos, a new format for blogs, and bringing a new change to the existing service - that’s why we were all a little bit scared but very excited at the same time.
Are there any insights you gained from working on the project?
It is interesting to see that there are always people who record everything. Even when times change and trends come and go, the act of recording continues to be there. Many users would still gravitate towards blogs, and bloggers would keep posting, even when they might write about different things in a different manner over time.
I was also once obsessed with keeping up with the trend. But when I saw users focusing on recording a piece of their everyday life even when everything around them changed, I began to think about the essence of our service again. In my opinion, the heart of the NAVER Blog service lies in “providing the optimized environment for users to write well.” Helping bloggers to record better wherever they are and whenever it might be. Our Moment project offered new features for users, but the ultimate goal was to provide a better environment for users to record their day-to-day life in a more expressive way. As I’m currently in charge of planning for new tools and operating the editor feature, this is something that is constantly on my mind.
What is the drive that keeps you going?
I had one goal when I first joined the NAVER Blog team. Rather than wanting to give this service a completely new look as a product developer, my goal was set more from the user’s perspective: I wanted this service to continue to be part of people’s lives for years to come. The biggest reason is that I want my own snippets of my life, which I have recorded for more than 10 years, to continue to be there. Sometimes I imagine giving my NAVER account to my child when I have kids of my own later. It would be just like showing your most beloved, cherished journal to your kid.
Being part of a team that creates a service I genuinely love, creating a service that can truly take into account what users want, and wanting the NAVER Blog service to continue to grow with me - that in itself is the drive that keeps me going.
