Naver founder has a job to finish

Naver founder Lee Hae-jin / Yonhap

By Oh Young-jin

Can Naver founder Lee Hae-jin save the company, over which he has given up ― at least by appearances ― most of his control?

There was news from France on Thursday. Lee, Korea's dominant portal's global investment officer (GIO), is leading an investment of 258.9 billion won ($227 million) through Naver France, a subsidiary in Europe. Naver is to purchase 2 million new shares issued by its French subsidiary.

"Naver is preparing to launch a new platform while expanding the acquisition of content and investment in startups," an unnamed Naver official told Maeil Economic Daily.

Besides the latest investment, Naver already has 200 million euro, or 259 billion won, in French venture capital to invest in a ride-sharing startup in Estonia, voice recognition firm Snips and eight others. It has bought the Xerox Research Center in Europe that is engaged in machine learning and other Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. The investments are Lee's work.

Lee's latest move sent Naver's stock price up 3.35 percent, or 25,000 won, to 772,000 won Thursday. It fell a little in Friday morning trade.

This month alone, Naver's stock has risen about 8 percent thanks to foreigners' purchases. But there is a lot of ground to cover to recover to the new-year high near 1 million won.

Six brokerages have predicted the portal's profitability will worsen because of rising costs. FnGuide, a financial information firm, expects Naver's third-quarter operating profit to shrink 15.9 percent to 262.5 billion won.

"Naver hired over 2,000 last year and the aggressive employment policy is expected to continue this year," the Korea Economic Daily quoted Oh Dong-whan, a Samsung Securities analyst, as saying. "The profitability will suffer this year at least and may continue next year. It's not advisable to keep the Naver stock for a long time."

The paper said the company's fortunes depend on how its Line business, a messaging service popular in Japan and Southeast Asia, fares.

But the bigger problem lies in whether Naver behaves like Facebook.

Naver has been under siege for being a monopoly at the expense of, for instance, all news outlets, which are putting themselves at Naver's beck and call.

The portal also was criticized for allegedly being taken advantage of by a political force.

Then there are allegations that Naver has set an agenda for the media, depriving them of their role.

Some say Naver has become too big.

Lee has been avoiding the fracas, casting himself away from the National Assembly's scrutiny.

There is a rumor that Lee is so thin-skinned that he did not want to face parliamentary inspection.

Being away from the heat, Lee may have thought he is safe, but it is inevitable he should finish the job he started.

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