Naver (035420.KS) is aggressively upgrading its "Place" feature, which displays information about specific locations. After reintroducing star-rating reviews on Place for the first time in about five years, the company has now significantly expanded its overseas place information. The move is expected to make it easier for users to conduct more specific searches related to overseas travel on Naver.
According to the information technology (IT) industry on Wednesday, Naver has recently expanded its overseas place information more than tenfold compared to before. The expansion is based on overseas location data accumulated across various services and external partnerships.
The latest overhaul is characterized by providing overseas place listings that match users' specific intentions, such as detailed location features or travel situations. For example, when users search for queries combining a region name with a signature food item, such as "restaurants near the Eiffel Tower in Paris" or "sushi restaurants in Tokyo," the service shows a list of relevant eateries. Searching for "places to visit with children" along with a specific region name returns information on theme parks or historic sites suitable for family visits in that area, while adding keywords such as "good for photos" or "parking available" yields place information matching each keyword.
Previously, overseas travel information and places were provided only for country- or city-level search terms, but the service now extends to sub-city level areas. In the past, a search for "restaurants in Osaka, Japan" returned location information covering the entire city of Osaka, resulting in limited specificity. Now, users can search for detailed regional information such as "restaurants in Dotonbori, Osaka," "restaurants in Shinjuku Sanchome," or "places to visit in Nice, France."
Naver has also increased the number of Japanese restaurant places to 700,000 and significantly expanded the number of Japanese restaurants that can be booked through Tabelog via Naver. Since August last year, Naver has partnered with Tabelog, a Japanese restaurant search and reservation service, to offer Japanese restaurant information on Place and provide reservation links for some venues. "Demand for exploring overseas travel destinations through Naver continues to grow, which is why we have expanded overseas place information," said Choi Ji-hoon, head of Place Search at Naver.
Naver's push to revamp its Place feature has become markedly more pronounced recently. Earlier this month, on the 6th, Naver reintroduced star-rating reviews on Naver Place. This comes about five years after the feature was abolished in 2021 due to issues with malicious reviews. To prevent a recurrence of similar problems, the company has maintained a review structure centered on qualitative evaluation while adding star ratings alongside it. Naver currently operates Place reviews based on keyword evaluations (such as "good value for money," "delicious coffee," and "photogenic") and images.
In addition, on the 14th of this month, Naver expanded the content scope of its short-form video service "Clip" to include Place reviews. When users connect their "MY Place" management page with their Clip profile, the Place reviews they have previously written can be posted on their Clip profile. Naver expects that the Clip profile integration will allow high-quality Place reviews to be utilized as Clip content.
Analysts say Naver's reworking of its Place feature is also tied to defending its leadership in the map service market. In February, the government conditionally approved the export of high-precision map data at a 1:5,000 scale to Google, laying the groundwork for Google Maps to roll out pedestrian navigation and in-vehicle navigation features that had not previously been available in Korea.
Since then, domestic operators have been aggressively upgrading their map services. Last month, Kakao (035720.KS) began a pilot service providing ultra-precise operating information for about 420 Seoul city bus routes on Kakao Map. TMap Mobility plans to completely overhaul its user interface (UI) so that the service can be used conveniently not only for driving but also in everyday life.
