Naver Forms Business Alliance with Japanese Content Platform "Note," Becomes Second-Largest Shareholder

Secures 7.9% Stake in Note with 18.7 Billion KRW Investment

Naver announced on November 5 that it has formed a strategic partnership by investing 2 billion yen (approximately 18.7 billion KRW) in the Japanese content platform Note and signing a business alliance.

Note is a platform where users can express and share their ideas and experiences through text, images, audio, and video content. It also offers monetization models such as paid content sales and support for IP commercialization. As of August, the platform had 10.52 million subscribers, and the accumulated content since 2014 has reached approximately 64 million items. Last year, Note recorded sales of about 3.3 billion yen (approximately 31.1 billion KRW), a 19% increase from the previous year.

Naver announced on the 5th that it has formed a strategic partnership by investing 2 billion yen (approximately 18.7 billion KRW) in the Japanese content platform Note and signing a business alliance. Photo by Naver

With this investment, Naver will become the second-largest shareholder of Note. Both companies plan to collaborate to advance their platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

Specifically, they will combine Note's content ecosystem with Naver's expertise in user-generated content (UGC) and webtoons. Through this, they aim to integrate AI into Note's content, enhancing creative tools and the discovery and distribution of content. They also plan to develop new services such as AI search and vertical agents.

In addition, the two companies have agreed to jointly seek investment opportunities to strengthen their global competitiveness. They also plan to support global creators by promoting cross-border content distribution and secondary creations based on promising intellectual properties (IP).

Choi Sooyoun, CEO of Naver, stated, "Note is a platform that brings together diverse content reflecting the individuality of about 10 million users across various genres in Japan. In the era of AI, where the value of content is becoming increasingly important, Note is a partner that can grow together with Naver. Based on the synergy between our platform capabilities and content, we will advance our technologies, discover new services, and enhance our competitiveness globally."

Kato Sadaaki, CEO of Note, commented, "The most important role of a platform is to widely and effectively deliver creators' works. Through this collaboration with Naver, we can now build a structure that brings creators' works from Asia to the world. By joining forces, our two companies will design more effective creative tools and distribution structures, creating a new creative ecosystem."