Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon said Thursday that the company's shopping AI agent will undergo internal closed beta testing starting next week before launching to customers at the end of February.
"Starting with shopping, we plan to sequentially launch various vertical agents throughout the year, covering restaurants, places, travel, and finance," Choi said during an earnings conference call for the fourth quarter of 2024. She added that the company also plans to launch an "AI Tab" featuring significantly enhanced generative AI experiences in the first half of this year.
Choi noted that AI contributed to 55% of the company's advertising revenue growth last year. "There is still plenty of room to leverage AI further, which means significant potential for additional growth," she said.
Regarding Naver's elimination from the government's sovereign foundation model project, known as "Dokpamo," Choi said the company "respects and humbly accepts the government's decision," while emphasizing that "this is not a reflection of our technological competitiveness."
"We will do our best to solidify the company's R&D and technology leadership," Choi said. "We believe the Dokpamo project elimination will not significantly impact the company's sovereign AI strategy, profitability, or B2B revenue."