Naver to Launch HyperClova X AI Platform
South Korean company Naver has announced that it will launch its own artificial intelligence platform this summer to upgrade its services. The HyperClova X platform is designed to have greater Korean language processing abilities than its US counterpart, OpenAI's ChatGPT. Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon confirmed the new service in the company's first quarter earnings call. She said that Naver plans to use HyperClova X in combination with productivity tools like Line Works and Naver Works in Japan later in the year. Naver will also launch the hyperscale AI service in the local business-to-business sector to solve customization and data protection issues.
Choi Soo-yeon explained that Naver's investments in AI technology since 2017 have given it a competitive edge in the Korean language model. The company hopes to improve its user experience by applying HyperClova X to all of its services. Naver expressed confidence that it can overcome the problem of the deterioration of accuracy when English-based models are translated into Korean.
Naver's Future Plans
As well as launching the new AI platform, Naver will also upgrade its search screen and app for user convenience in the latter half of this year. The company aims to quickly identify users' search intentions to lead to the desired search results. A service that can explore more content based on AI recommendations from search results is also on the way.
Choi Soo-yeon revealed that Naver is also developing an innovative AI service demo linked with various services to handle the latest generative AI trends.
Naver's Q1 Earnings Report
Before the earnings call, Naver released its first-quarter earnings report. The company's operating income rose 9.5% from the same period a year before to 330.5 billion won ($250.5 million). The sales of the company also rose 23.6% on-year to 2.28 trillion won. However, its net profit fell 71.2% on-year to 43.7 billion won over the three months.
Naver CFO Kim Nam-sun said that the weakened Korean currency expanded the loss due to the exchange rate of debt in foreign currency, and the decrease in equity-method net profit attributed to the decline in net income.
Despite this, Naver posted an earnings surprise in Q1, and shares of the IT giant ended trading at 207,000 won on Monday, adding 5.56% from the previous session's close.
