Inviting YouTubers and TikTokers... Naver Expands Doors for Creators

Expansion of Brand Connect Influencer Pool
Million-Won Support for Creators and Streamers Too

Naver is expanding its doors to allow creators from competing platforms such as YouTubers and TikTokers to collaborate with brands hosted on Naver. As overseas platforms that have grown based on competitive creators increasingly threaten domestic platforms, Naver is moving to secure creators.

According to the IT industry on the 13th, Naver plans to expand the eligibility for creators (influencers) who can use Brand Connect within the first quarter of this year. Previously, only influencers producing content on Naver, such as blogs or posts, were eligible, but now the platform will open its doors to creators from other platforms like YouTube and TikTok. A Naver official stated, "We will gradually expand eligibility so that creators from other platforms who meet certain criteria, such as having a minimum number of subscribers, can also join."

Brand Connect is a platform service that links Naver influencers with brands. Brands can view influence metrics (topic rankings, channel influence, number of fans, etc.) and key content of influencers registered on Brand Connect. Through this, brands can find influencers suitable for their marketing, propose content production, campaigns, and more.

Currently, out of 20,000 Naver influencers, about 10,000 generate revenue through Brand Connect. Expanding the pool to include creators from other platforms is expected to rapidly increase the number of influencers within Brand Connect.

Support for influencers will also be strengthened. A ‘Space’ will be provided to allow influencers to easily check various partnership activities with brands and support marketing-related tasks. This aims to assist Brand Connect activities and support diversification of influencers’ revenue streams.

Naver is attracting creators from competing platforms because their influence is continuously expanding. The more creators with fandoms are secured, the more users consuming their content and brands seeking collaboration can be increased. On the other hand, building an ecosystem that nurtures influential creators can help secure even more creators.

As overseas platforms like YouTube and TikTok, which have grown based on creators, intensify their offensive, Naver and Kakao are facing urgent challenges. Currently, Naver’s domestic search market share is 59.7%. Compared to when it once reached 80%, it has lost dominance to video services and social networking services (SNS). Based on mobile app data, last month YouTube’s monthly active users (MAU) reached 45,473,733, surpassing KakaoTalk for the first time.

Naver is putting effort into expanding creators. In the first half of this year, it plans to more than double the number of creators for its short-form content service ‘Clip’ compared to the second half of last year. Selected creators will receive a total of 1.2 billion KRW in basic activity fees and prizes. To make it easy for anyone to create short-form content, Naver plans to release a video editing tool called ‘Clip Editor’ within the first quarter. It is also securing streamers for the game streaming service ‘Chijijik.’ Starting from the 19th, broadcasting will be possible without a separate application process, lowering the entry barrier, and a streamer support project worth 5 billion KRW for content production costs will begin.