The government is expanding the base for digital technology exports, increasing interest in Naver. Naver is expected to take the lead in digital technology exports as it possesses competitive technologies in cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and more.
In June, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced a strategy to promote overseas expansion and export activation in the digital sector. The ministry plans to provide specialized support for key software and ICT service items to enter overseas markets and pioneer emerging markets such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America to expand the digital export territory.
With the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard, the AI industry has become a global hot topic, prompting the government to focus on AI exports. It announced the establishment of a global voucher to enable domestic AI to be utilized overseas and support for planning global AI services.
The company that has drawn the most attention under this government policy direction is Naver. Following OpenAI GPT-3 from the U.S. and Huawei Pangu from China, Naver developed HyperCLOVA, the world's third-largest ultra-large language model. Notably, on August 24, Naver will unveil the next-generation ultra-large AI model, ‘HyperCLOVA X,’ and plans to release various generative AI services based on it within the year. These services are expected to be used diversely beyond Q&A and search, including content production and creation.
Naver’s preparation for overseas expansion by promoting ‘Sovereign AI’ also acts as a strength in digital technology exports. Sovereign AI is a strategy to support the construction of native language AI models in non-English-speaking countries where global big tech companies have not yet fully entered. It is expected to lead digital technology exports mainly in the Middle East and ASEAN regions.
In this regard, Ha Jung-woo, head of Naver Cloud AI Innovation Center, recently attended the discussion forum ‘Korea in the Era of Ultra-large AI and AI Sovereignty’ and revealed that they are developing an ultra-large AI model in Japanese and plan to enter the Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian markets.
Already, in March, Naver signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing and the Ministry of Investment to cooperate in various ways for digital transformation, marking the start of its Middle East expansion and raising expectations that Naver could participate in Saudi Arabia’s NEOM City project. This month, Naver also signed an MOU with LX Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Corporation to advance digital twin technology overseas.
Meanwhile, as digital transformation rapidly progresses worldwide, related demand is also expanding. The global generative AI market size is expected to grow from about $10 billion last year at an average annual growth rate of 34.7%, reaching $104 billion by 2030. The digital twin market is projected to reach $90 billion by 2032, and the cloud market is expected to grow to approximately $1.46 trillion by 2027.
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