Naver (035420.KS) is accelerating a new spatial platform experiment that connects physical spaces with the online world by upgrading its mapping service based on digital twin technology. While conventional map services have been limited to navigation and place searches, Naver Map is broadening the scope of its mapping service with "Flying View 3D," which renders actual cities and landmarks in three dimensions and allows users to explore spaces as if surveying them from the sky.
Flying View 3D enables users to view major landmarks and urban spaces across the country in three dimensions from an aerial perspective. When users tap an image marker placed on a specific location in the Naver Map app, they can examine the area from various angles through a screen that combines actual aerial photography with 3D spatial data. Unlike simple satellite images or 2D maps, the service allows users to intuitively grasp the height of buildings, surrounding terrain, road structures, and the volumetric feel of spaces.
Naver first introduced Flying View 3D last October, covering 10 destinations across the country, including Cheomseongdae Observatory in Gyeongju, COEX in Seoul, Songdo Central Park in Incheon, the Jeonju Hanok Village, and BEXCO in Busan. Since its launch, interest has grown among foreign tourists visiting Korea and users planning domestic trips. During the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit last year, usage of Flying View 3D rose more than 2.2 times above the average since launch, and use is also expanding in May, the spring outing season.
Naver Map has expanded the coverage of Flying View 3D to allow more three-dimensional exploration of all of Seoul, centered on the city's major landmarks. Users can select major Seoul landmarks such as 63 Square in Yeouido, Jamsil Sports Complex, and the National Assembly Building on Naver Map and view them through Flying View 3D. In particular, the service's utility has grown as major landmarks in the Jongno and Itaewon areas — where typical aerial or drone filming is difficult — are also provided in three dimensions. Users can now tour signature Seoul spaces such as Gyeongbokgung Palace, Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, and N Seoul Tower as if actually flying over them.
Naver Labs' digital twin technology forms the foundation of this service. Flying View 3D coverage of all of Seoul was built using "S-MAP" data based on the digital twin that Naver Labs developed in collaboration with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, along with high-resolution aerial images captured by drones. In 2019, Naver Labs rendered the entire city of Seoul in three dimensions together with the Seoul Metropolitan Government, based on its digital twin solution "ALIKE." At the time, the 3D model of Seoul was produced through approximately 30 days of processing based on 25,463 aerial photographs taken over 17 days. The mapped area covered 605 square kilometers and included approximately 600,000 buildings.
ALIKE is Naver Labs' core solution for building high-precision digital twins by combining aerial photography, artificial intelligence (AI), and mobile mapping systems. It can be extended to indoor, outdoor, and road spaces, and is used to reconstruct entire cities into precise 3D data. Naver has internalized digital twin data production solutions, devices, AI data processing, cloud platform engineering, and hardware technologies, securing accuracy and scalability. Naver Labs' digital twin solution is known to render precise spatial data with an error margin of within approximately 4 centimeters.
Flying View 3D applies "3D Gaussian Splatting" technology, which reconstructs real spaces in three dimensions using multiple photographs or videos. The technology can render real-time images from new viewpoints and naturally render complex elements such as tree branches, power lines, and light reflections.
Novel View Synthesis (NVS) technology has also been applied. NVS is an AI technology that learns from real images captured at multiple locations and generates footage from new viewpoints that were not actually filmed. Naver combined high-resolution aerial images captured by drones with Street View 3D images taken with "P1," a mapping device developed in-house by Naver Labs, allowing users to navigate landmarks naturally from various angles. The 10 landmarks unveiled at the launch — Yeouido in Seoul, the area around Samseong Station in Seoul, Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, Naver's "1784" headquarters in Seongnam, Songdo Central Park, the Jeonju Hanok Village, the Bomun district in Gyeongju, the Gyeongju Historic Areas, Haeundae in Busan, and the Centum City area in Busan — were also provided with Flying View 3D footage produced using NVS technology.
In addition to Flying View 3D, Naver Map is expanding spatial intelligence-based services such as Street View 3D and indoor augmented reality (AR) navigation. Street View 3D recreates the sense of offline space in a 3D environment that comes close to what users see with their own eyes. It provides panoramic views that connect more seamlessly than conventional 2D Street View, and users can also tap on buildings or shops shown on the screen to view detailed information. Indoor AR navigation is a service that recognizes a user's location and direction using only the smartphone camera in complex shopping malls or large indoor spaces where GPS signals do not reach, and provides directions through AR.
Such technologies are expanding Naver Map from a simple location information service into a "spatial experience platform." Maps are no longer just tools for showing the route to a destination. They are evolving into digital touchpoints that allow users to experience spaces in advance before actually visiting and connect them with tourist destinations, commercial districts, and cultural content. Naver's offerings — such as the "online cherry blossom viewing" feature that lets users virtually tour cherry blossom hotspots through Flying View 3D, and the Easter egg event combining webtoon content with Street View — also illustrate this potential for expansion.
In March of this year, during the BTS concert at Gwanghwamun, Naver used Street View 3D to install virtual electronic billboards in the Gwanghwamun area and provided related videos. During cherry blossom season, the company added cherry blossom effects to Street View imagery of major destinations such as Anmin Pass at the Jinhae Gunhangje Festival, Seokchon Lake in Jamsil, the Bomun district in Gyeongju, Dalmaji-gil in Haeundae, and Gyeongpodae in Gangneung, allowing users to feel the seasonal atmosphere within the map app. More recently, the company has continued experiments combining spatial data with content, such as running a Street View-based event tied to the webtoon "Return of the Mount Hua Sect."
The industry sees Flying View 3D as having potential to expand into various fields including tourism, local commerce, real estate, advertising, and entertainment. For example, tourists can check the actual spatial feel of a destination and design their itinerary before traveling. Commercial districts and complex shopping malls can showcase their surrounding environment and accessibility in three dimensions, and in the real estate market, building locations, views, and surrounding infrastructure can be conveyed more intuitively. From the perspective of brands and content companies, immersive marketing or virtual events based on specific locations can also be implemented.
In particular, digital twin-based maps are likely to become core infrastructure for AI services. AI requires precise spatial data to understand and make judgments about real spaces. Autonomous driving, robot delivery, smart cities, disaster response, and urban planning all operate on data that accurately replicates real spaces in digital form. Naver's application of Flying View 3D to its mapping service can be seen as laying the foundation for expansion into spatial AI and city-scale digital platforms, going beyond improving user experience.
Naver Map plans to expand Flying View 3D coverage to other locations such as Seongsan Ilchulbong on Jeju Island, Wolmido in Incheon, and the Yeosu Expo. The company will also broaden the entry points to make Flying View 3D more easily accessible to users. Going forward, Naver plans to strengthen the linkage between Street View 3D and Flying View 3D, allowing users to seamlessly explore real-world spaces rendered in 3D as they move between the air and the ground.
"Naver Map is providing new spatial experiences to more than 30 million monthly users by vividly connecting real-world space and digital as the 'map closest to reality,'" said Jung Kyung-hwa, leader of Naver Map. "Given the boundless synergy between maps and spatial intelligence technology, we are pursuing a variety of experiments so that users can access diverse information and content related to places in 3D space."
