S.Korea’s five major companies form data network alliance

South Korea's five major companies have joined forces to make a combined data product that consolidates their respective information, ranging from consumer spending and payments to credit ratings, income and package delivery information.

Naver Cloud said on Wednesday that it has partnered with Samsung Card, Lotte Members, CJ OliveNetworks and NICE Information Service Co., to create combined data products that consolidate their respective information.

The signing ceremony took place on Tuesday at Samsung Card's headquarters in Seoul, and was attended by the CEOs of each company.

The "Data Network Alliance" is a strategic partnership designed to provide more extensive data services by gathering companies with vast experience in using data in each field, such as platforms, IT services, distribution and credit information. Through this cooperation, each company plans to create and sell combined data products that take advantage of their respective strengths.

Naver Cloud will provide data, including search and click-based interest and trend information of Naver Corp., the largest portal service in Korea, and serve as an analysis platform. Data combined from the five companies will be provided by "Cloud Data Box," a data analysis platform of Naver Cloud. This will enable data providers to disclose quality data with confidence, and customers can use not only data but also cloud-based analysis platforms.

Samsung Card will provide customer demo data and approval data based on member and card payment information, combining data collected in each field and supporting analysis. Samsung Card currently expands its related business based on the judgment that data will be a new growth engine, and recently, it has been preliminarily designated as a private data organization by the Financial Services Commission and is preparing for the main approval.

Lotte Members will provide consumer spending data such as retail, dining out, and entertainment of 42 million L-point members. It will also link the research consulting service "Lime" and the analysis consulting service "Lab" to derive insights.

CJ OliveNetworks will provide logistics data such as online shopping-based delivery items and delivery destination information and establish IT infrastructure.

NICE Information Service will provide information such as credit and income held by credit inquiry companies and provide additional information on affiliates such as commercial district information, distribution information, and online seller-only information.

"Naver Cloud will actively support the disclosure of high-quality data with confidence by providing high-quality data and a safe data analysis platform," said Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yoo-won. "We will not only provide more expanded data services based on mutual cooperation through the Data Network Alliance, but also aim to expand the domestic data industry ecosystem."

Write to Mi-Hyun Jo at mwise@hankyung.com