"420,000 Online Startups Nurtured by Naver's 'Project Kkot', Now Blooming Overseas"

Hansung-suk, Naver CEO's Ambitious Project
Doubling Local Market Store Entries
Aiming for Dongdaemun Fashion's Global Expansion
100 Billion Won Investment to Support Blind Spots

Hansung-sook, CEO of Naver, is explaining support measures for the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and plans for global expansion at the 'Naver Meetup' press conference on the 2nd.

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] Naver has embarked on expanding the business scope of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The company aims to assist SMEs in their global expansion by applying Naver's IT technology. Naver will also contribute 10 billion KRW in cash to support SMEs facing difficulties in business growth.

420,000 Startups Born on Naver

Han Seong-sook, CEO of Naver, stated at the ‘Naver Meetup’ online press conference on the 2nd, "The ‘Project Flower,’ which aimed to lead 10,000 startups in April 2016, has resulted in 420,000 Smart Store startups."

Naver’s ‘Project Flower’ is CEO Han’s ambitious project. Its core is to grow the platform through coexistence with SMEs. This also leads to an increase in Naver’s competitiveness. When SME businesses thrive, advertising and search data increase, enabling Naver to generate revenue.

CEO Han said, "The growth model created by the platform and SMEs has become a major trend in platform business," adding, "We will lead new platform rules through the development of various tools and support programs based on data."

First, Naver will expand the ‘Naver Jangbogi’ neighborhood market service, which allows offline business owners to build an online presence, from the current scale of 80 locations nationwide to 160. Naver Jangbogi is a service where users can order products sold at traditional markets near their residence via a smartphone app and have them delivered. For example, the first market to join, Amsa Market in Seoul, generates an average monthly sales of 100 million KRW.

To transfer the success of neighborhood markets to neighborhood restaurants and cafes, Naver will also improve ‘Smart Place,’ which displays store information in search and maps. CEO Han emphasized, "Through Project Flower, Naver has transformed into a platform that can be competitive not only for general users but also for SMEs and creators."

Expanding into the Global Market

Naver has set its sights on laying the groundwork for global market expansion. CEO Han said, "This year will mark another beginning for Naver toward the global stage."

Naver will launch ‘Project Flower 2.0,’ which aims to support SME growth by providing various logistics solutions and further expanding into global markets.

Naver plans to expand the ‘Fast Delivery’ product category for food and daily necessities sellers and establish a collaborative model to support logistics quality management for producers shipping directly from production sites.

In particular, to support startups and global expansion of SMEs in the Dongdaemun fashion sector, Naver will partner with logistics startups to provide the ‘Dongdaemun Smart Logistics Solution.’ Naver will also create a ‘Fulfillment (storage and delivery outsourcing) Data Platform’ that consolidates Smart Store data accumulated by Naver and logistics data from partner companies in one place.

CEO Han also revealed Naver’s plan to introduce its technology to the global market. Naver announced that it will implement the ‘Smart Store Platform’ within the first half of the year to expand commerce businesses of LINE and Yahoo Japan. CEO Han explained, "Cases of Naver’s technology platform being introduced to the global market will continue to emerge."

Naver will also newly launch programs such as the ‘Start All-in-One Program’ and ‘Naver Business School.’ The company plans to support payment fees and provide professional education including management consulting for SMEs. Along with the existing 12-month payment fee support, an additional 6-month sales-linked fee support will be provided. Naver will also assist SMEs in blind spots. CEO Han added, "Naver will contribute 10 billion KRW in cash to support these SMEs."