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On November 27, 2025, a joint press conference between TEAM NAVER and Dunamu was held at NAVER’s 1784 headquarters. Present at the event were NAVER Chairman Lee Hae-jin, CEO Choi Soo-yeon, NAVER Pay CEO Park Sang-jin, Dunamu Chairman Song Chi-hyung, and CEO Oh Kyoung-suk, bringing together top management executives from all three companies. They shared their vision and ambition to combine their respective strengths to target global AI and Web3 markets. Below is an excerpt from the remarks by NAVER Chairman Lee Hae-jin.

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NAVER surviving global competition through tech investment and strategic collaboration

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NAVER is often perceived as a large conglomerate or as an IT dinosaur. However, from a global perspective, NAVER is a relatively small company, with a market capitalization and R&D investment roughly one-hundredth that of global big tech companies. For a company of this size, surviving in such intense technological competition has been extremely challenging. The fact that it is rare to find companies around the world that operate their own domestic search engine demonstrates just how fierce the competition NAVER has been facing.

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The first reason NAVER has been able to survive in this intense competition thus far is its proactive investment in technology. NAVER has consistently invested with a deep commitment to technology, not only in search engines but also in artificial intelligence, becoming the first company in Korea and the third in the world to develop a large language model.

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The second reason is that NAVER has pursued new initiatives that global big tech companies were not fully aware of. Prime examples include services that leverage the power of UGC, the integration of search and commerce, and new content formats such as webtoons.

Lastly, NAVER knew how to join forces with companies that had strong technologies and services. During the PC era, NAVER was able to maintain its market competitiveness by partnering with companies such as Hangame and search solution providers. In the mobile era, NAVER merged with 1noon, expanded into Japan, and created the successful case of LINE. By growing through collaboration with companies that demonstrated outstanding capabilities, NAVER was able to compete effectively in areas that would have been difficult to take on alone.

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Challenging the leap toward becoming a global AI powerhouse through an unprecedented partnership with Dunamu

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Today, the world stands at a pivotal moment shaped by the powerful forces of AI and Web3. To survive in this transformation and to compete in a meaningful way, NAVER must join forces with a company that possesses exceptional technology and deep expertise in the Web3 space in order to move to the next stage. This is the primary reason NAVER decided to integrate with Dunamu.

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Based on my experience, mergers and collaborations between companies require an immense amount of work, effort, and hardship. However, we chose to take this difficult path for only one reason: a shared sense of mission to join forces and expand globally.

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To make sure Korea becomes a global leader in the AI era, more companies need to join forces and move forward together. NAVER, together with Dunamu, aims to take on an unprecedented challenge of “Integrating AI and Web3.” This is not the end, but the beginning of many more challenges ahead, and we hope to see many successful examples of collaboration emerge in the future. We ask for your warm encouragement and support for this new initiative and challenge. NAVER will strive even harder to live up to these expectations. Thank you.

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► View CEO Choi Soo-yeon’s presentation at the joint TEAM NAVER & Dunamu press conference