Naver, named 3rd most innovative company in the Asia-Pacific

South Korea’s online giant Naver Corp. ranked as the third most innovative company in the Asia-Pacific by a top US business magazine for the platform operator’s expansions in the artificial intelligence business.

Naver took third place on Fast Company's list of 2024's most innovative Asia-Pacific companies announced on March 19. Taiwanese electric scooter maker Gogoro Inc. known for its green-hued battery swap distribution network for riders topped the list, followed by SpotDraft, a legal technology startup with AI-based contract management and drafting software.

Australia’s Sea Forest Ltd., Indonesia’s eFishery Inc. and Inifinix Mobility were among the top 10 companies on the list.

“Despite a slowdown in growth across startups and larger tech companies around the globe last year, the following 10 companies were able to not only help find solutions to local problems within the Asia-Pacific region, but many were also able to scale beyond their borders,” said Fast Company.

“South Korea’s top search engine, Naver, created its own Chat GPT-esque platform called Clova X, specifically catering to Korean language and culture.”

Fast Company has been selecting the most innovative companies in the world for the list every year since 2008. The magazine named 606 companies in 58 sectors for this year’s list, topped by Nvidia Corp, the world’s top AI chip provider.

Naver Webtoon Ltd., the leading global digital comics provider, ranked at the top of the most innovative company list in the media sector, up from No. 8 on the overall list last year. Line Corp., Naver’s affiliate, topped the list for the social media sector in 2015.

CLOVA X

Naver unveiled CLOVA X, a conversational AI service last August when it introduced its upgraded large language model (LLM) HyperCLOVA X.

The AI service can aid in text creation, summarization, induction, translation and coding. It is capable of multi-turn conversations, allowing more than one turn by a party in interactions.

Naver introduced a function in November 2023 that allows users to have various conversations with CLOVA X based on the contents of document files.

The company expanded its ties with external services such as gourmet food delivery platform Kurly Inc., AI-based job portal Wanted Lab Inc. and hyper-personalized travel platform Triple last month.

The move linked CLOVA X with the most up-to-date and specialized information to help AI provide more accurate data.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.