Nakao Restructures Organization for New Year... Tightening Global Market Strategy

Naver Integrates B2B Organization into Naver Cloud
Kakao Dissolves Emergency Committee... Elevates Infrastructure Organization

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Choi] Naver and Kakao have begun reorganizing their organizations for the new year. Naver is accelerating its global market strategy by consolidating its business-to-business (B2B) operations under Naver Cloud. Kakao is ending the emergency management system initiated after the service outage incident in October and focusing on revamping KakaoTalk.

According to industry sources on the 5th, Naver integrated Clova CIC (Company-In-Company), Naver Works, Papago, and Whale into Naver Cloud on the 2nd. This consolidation brought together Naver’s AI, collaboration tools, translation, and browser B2B business units under the independent subsidiary Naver Cloud. As a result, the number of Naver Cloud employees doubled from about 900 to around 2,000.

The new cloud organization is led solely by Kim Yuwon, co-CEO of Naver Cloud. The plan is to enhance product competitiveness by combining cloud services with AI, translation, and other solutions. CEO Kim said, "We will increase our competitiveness by combining Naver’s technology, such as HyperClova (a massive AI), with the cloud platform. In an environment where all businesses are reorganizing around the cloud, we will introduce products that lead technological trends."

Park Won-ki, who co-led Naver Cloud with CEO Kim, will take on the newly established role of Head of Asia-Pacific Business Development. He will focus on expanding global business with the goal of becoming a top-three player in the Asia-Pacific region. Naver Cloud currently operates local regions (servers) in Japan and Southeast Asia to provide cloud services. It is also exploring the European and U.S. markets, including applying for membership in the European Union (EU) Cloud Alliance. The EU Cloud Alliance is an organization of 39 companies aimed at developing Europe-specific cloud services. If Naver joins, it will be the only member from a non-European country.

Kakao disbanded the Emergency Response Committee (ERC) that was formed to manage the service outage incident last October. It established a technical organization directly under the CEO and made personnel appointments, including assigning the subcommittee chair who led the ERC. This followed the announcement of compensation measures for the outage on the 29th of last month.

Namgung Hoon, former CEO and co-chair of the ERC’s recurrence prevention subcommittee, will serve as a full-time advisor at the Future Initiative Center. The Future Initiative Center oversees Kakao’s future strategies, with Center Head Kim Beom-su expected to lead future business and global expansion strategies. Go Woo-chan, co-chair of the ERC’s recurrence prevention subcommittee, will head the newly established Infrastructure Division directly under CEO Hong Eun-taek. This division is an upgraded organization from the previous Infrastructure Office, which handled IT engineering. It will recruit additional IT engineering personnel and be responsible for infrastructure investment and service stabilization.

With the disbandment of the ERC and the conclusion of emergency management, Kakao is accelerating new business initiatives. Following the addition of empathy stickers to KakaoTalk earlier last month, it is currently revamping KakaoTalk by integrating short-form content and expanding Open Chat. Within the first half of this year, Open Chat will be launched as a separate app called Open Link, and Kakao will also target overseas markets. The Open Chat feature, which allows people with shared interests to communicate, will be linked with Kakao’s major services such as webtoons and games, aiming to evolve into a non-acquaintance interest-based platform.