[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] Obzen, a MarTech solution provider applying big data and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, is showing strong performance. It appears that Naver's announcement of its goal to launch SearchGPT within the first half of this year has influenced the stock price. Interest in Obzen is also growing as Konan Technology, which is working with SK Telecom to advance AI services, has surged sharply this year.
As of 10:09 AM on the 3rd, Obzen is trading at 60,300 KRW, up 23.81% from the previous day. Since its IPO on the 30th of last month at an offering price of 18,000 KRW, it has maintained a steep upward trend. Its market capitalization has exceeded 230 billion KRW.
Founded in 2000, Obzen is a MarTech (a combination of marketing and technology) company. It develops marketing solutions based on big data and AI technology. After listing, Naver Cloud holds a 6.96% stake, making it the second-largest shareholder.
Obzen is strengthening collaboration with Naver Cloud. They plan to develop marketing solutions based on the Naver Cloud platform and promote marketing targeting Naver Shopping merchants in the future, aiming to enhance synergy between Obzen and Naver Cloud.
Kyunggeun Kang, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities, explained, "We expect an increase in new business sales due to strengthened cooperation with Naver Cloud, a strategic investor (SI) and the second-largest shareholder." He added, "They are jointly developing SaaS solutions based on the Naver Cloud platform, scheduled for release this year." He further noted, "They will also collaborate on joint sales targeting Naver Shopping merchants and derive business insights for corporate clients using Naver Cloud data (Naver Search and Shopping)."
Suyeon Choi, CEO of Naver, stated during the Q4 2022 earnings conference call, "We are preparing countermeasures for new search trends such as generative AI." She added, "Naver is the operator with the highest quality search data in Korean and boasts world-class technology as a giant AI model, making it Korea's top search AI technology company." She emphasized, "Our goal is to introduce Naver's upgraded search experience, SearchGPT, in the first half of this year."
Naver plans to provide highly reliable, up-to-date content data with sources for searches requiring summarized answers, such as Seoul subway fares. For searches needing advice, like 'how to buy a laptop cheaply,' Naver is internally experimenting with providing answers using diverse content to improve the quality of search results and users' content consumption experience.
Konan Technology has surged more than 270% this year. Through a strategic partnership with SK Telecom, its second-largest shareholder, they are jointly advancing the AI assistant 'A.Dot.' Kiwoom Securities introduced that Konan Technology possesses high technical capabilities in both text and video fields based on proprietary AI technology developed in-house.
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