Naver ad sales top 1 trillion won, trumping TV
NHN is expecting a 25 percent increase in keyword advertising revenue in the second quarter of this year. The little lime green banner did it again.
Attesting to the power of online media, NHN, Korea’s largest Internet service company and operator of the Naver portal, surpassed ₩1.1 trillion (approximately US$1 billion) in yearly ad sales revenue, according to Chosun Ilbo.
According to an analysis by KT Economics and Management Laboratory, NHN has swallowed a 70 percent market share of the online ad sales market in Korea, and now occupies 14 percent of the country’s entire ad sales market.
The KT lab said that this marks the first time that a Korean media company (including TV and newspapers) surpassed ₩1 trillion in sales.
The portal service company’s revenue is more than those of terrestrial broadcasting companies KBS, MBC or SBS.
In addition to its flashing keywords and colorful homepage jam-packed with information and images, Naver has also headed creative initiatives such as the world’s first online donation portal, Happybean, launched in 2005, and smaller collaborative broadcasting projects such as YG On Air, which features media content produced solely by YG Entertainment.
For total domination of the market, may we suggest adding a Korean Hulu?
