Naver optimizing internet services for foreign visitors

By Yoon Sung-won

Naver is pushing to provide its diverse internet platform services for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics next year, the company said Wednesday.

As an official sponsor, the company said it is working hand in hand with the PyeongChang Olympic Games Organizing Committee (POGOC) based on its services such as search engines, maps, webtoons, display advertisements and video casts. The two entities signed a sponsorship agreement April 26 last year.

“Based on the knowhow that we have accumulated while preparing for multiple international sporting events in the past, we will offer our utmost support and our infrastructure to make the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games one of the world’s best sport events,” a Naver official said.

The nation’s top internet service provider said it will concentrate on offering tailor-made services for foreigners who will visit Korea early next year.

“An estimated 50,000 visitors including national sport teams, officials and media as well as some 5 million tourists will visit the PyeongChang Olympics, which is expected to be the largest in history,” he said. “Such a large-scale international sporting event will be the best opportunity for us to promote Naver as a global brand.”

Naver said it has picked mobile map, mobile web portal, mobile search engine and reservation services as priority areas to focus on. In particular, it regards Naver Map as the key service that is likely to be most frequently used by foreigners during the event.

The company is also setting up convenient login and payment systems for foreign visitors to access Korean culture content. Corporate policies and terms are also under scrutiny for this purpose, it said.

“For the service upgrade project for foreigners, we have started by optimizing internet services for tourists and foreigners staying in Korea during the PyeongChang Olympics,” Naver’s new CEO appointee Han Seong-sook said. “This will be an opportunity for Naver to become a leading internet service here that connects Korea and users around the globe.”

Naver said it will put a special section on the main page of its mobile website for foreigners and introduce tourist locations and Korean culture, helping them better establish plans while staying in Korea.

For the mobile search engine service, it will update foreign language options and translation features. In particular, Naver is pushing to improve information on accommodation, restaurants, public transportation and tourism sites for foreigners.

Regarding language support, it is working to update an international dictionary service for 31 languages worldwide.

Meanwhile, Naver will also hire international students in Korea as interns to check and verify accessibility and usability of its services from the perspective of global users.