Naver bets on hardware business

Naver Chief Technology Officer Song Chang-hyun delivers a keynote speech during the company’s developer conference “DEVIEW 2015” at the COEX, southern Seoul, Monday. More than 2,000 developers from home and abroad participated in the two-day event. / Courtesy of Naver

By Lee Min-hyung

Naver is expanding its business into the hardware sector in a move to build what it calls a “connected platform” by converging the company’s software-driven technology.

The nation’s top portal operator said Monday that it will invest 100 billion won ($84.7 million) in developing robots and establishing smart home-based ecosystems.

Given that the company has focused solely on software since it was founded in 1999, the move reflects its drive to meet growing demand for Internet of Things (IoT) related products.

“We will push for research and development (R&D) in the hardware sector including mobility, robotics and smart homes,” said Naver chief technology officer Song Chang-hyun, during the company’s annual developer conference “DEVIEW 2015” at the COEX, southern Seoul.

Naver has been holding the nation’s largest information and technology centered conference annually since 2008. More than 2,000 developers from home and abroad participated in the two-day event.

“By teaming up with conglomerates and small and medium-sized companies, we will conduct joint research to lead the technological revolution in the global market,” he said.

The so-called “BLUE” project will be led by Naver Labs, the portal company’s R&D center, for five years.

Renowned robotics engineer Dennis Hong will join the project to share his technological expertise and develop IoT-related robots, the company said.

Expectations are that Naver Labs can establish the connected platform with Naver’s big data-based application technology which it has developed for more than a decade.

The DEVIEW 2015 consists of 48 sessions on the latest technological trends including robots, big data and tech startups.

Naver Line on Apple Watch

At one of the sessions, Naver unveiled why it decided to provide its messenger app service LINE on the Apple Watch.

“There have been demands for the LINE service to be operated in other smart watches before the Apple Watch was released in September last year,” said Kang Yoon-sik, a developer at LINE Plus, the operator of the LINE service.

“But we reached an internal consensus to incorporate our service on the Apple Watch as we thought it would be something big in the wearable device market,” he said. “That’s why we decided to launch the LINE application for it.”

He said the company had expected that the Apple Watch would be simply a small-sized version of an iPhone.

“But it was not. Users touched home screen buttons less frequently than smart phones, and they were less likely to use applications with the device,” he said.

“One thing we realized was that they did not mind checking notifications on their Apple Watch.”

LINE Plus decided to shift its focus into providing a simple notification interface for them.

“After improving the interface in the simplest form, we have received favorable responses from Apple Watch customers who use our service.”