Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
Naver keeps Google in check over map service for tourists
Posters for Naver Map's new campaign BE LOCAL / Courtesy of Naver
By Lee Gyu-lee
Naver Map launches campaign for foreign tourists visiting Korea
As Google again seeks access to Korea’s high-precision map data for Google Maps, the country's portal giant Naver is striving to maintain its edge with foreign users, rolling out a new tourist-friendly campaign.
The BE LOCAL campaign, which will run from Monday through May 13, introduces restaurants, cafes, fashion stores and cultural spaces trending among local young people in popular tourist areas such as Myeong-dong, Seongsu-dong, Itaewon and Hannam-dong.
With the feature, tourists will be able to quickly see restaurants, attractions, and activity spots that local users in their 20s and 30s most frequently saved on the map.
As part of the campaign, the company collaborated with popular fashion, cosmetic and lifestyle brands among foreigners like Olive Young, Innisfree and Musinsa to offer discount coupons on the platform. Beginning in May, it will also give out limited-edition BE LOCAL campaign merchandise to users who download the map’s app and visit collaborating brands.
"Naver Map is a platform that best understands Korea's latest trends based on the country's largest location information database and authentic visitor reviews," Lee Sang-chul, Naver’s head of place business, said in a release.
"Through Naver Map’s multilingual version, we will continue to support foreign users not only to travel conveniently in Korea but also to experience its culture and trends more richly."
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The campaign comes as Google recently made its third attempt to acquire 1:5,000 scale high-precision map data of the country for its data centers abroad. It currently uses the publicly available 1:25,000 scale map data, as do many global firms operating in Korea.
The U.S. tech giant has been seeking approval for higher-resolution data since 2007, arguing that it needs access to provide comprehensive GPS services in the country. The Korean government declined the requests on the grounds of national security concerns, as the map contains highly detailed information on urban planning and social overhead capital construction projects.
If the firm’s latest request is approved, it could bring a significant boost for the map platform, industry officials said.
"As Google Maps is already widely used outside Korea, foreign tourists are more like to stay on the app while traveling instead of switching off to an unfamiliar local app," an IT industry official said. "And with the local consumer base, a considerable amount of Korean users are also likely to move on to Google Maps if offered the same accuracy as the local companies’ maps."
Against this backdrop, Naver's campaign to promote its map service for foreign tourists appears to be an effort to safeguard its market share amid concerns that potential regulatory changes could alter the competitive landscape of the company’s digital mapping business.
Since launching its multilingual version in 2018, Naver Map has been strengthening features to secure foreign users, providing English, Chinese and Japanese translations of Korean text reviews, and filters to find establishments that match users' preferences.
Within the first half of this year, Naver plans to improve its Naver Pay service to make reservations, orders, and payments more convenient for foreign users.