Google Surpasses Naver in South Korean Monthly Active Users for the First Time
According to data from IGAWorks, the Google app recorded 47.02 million monthly active users (MAU) in South Korea last month, surpassing local giant Naver's 46.84 million for the first time since tracking began in March 2021. This shift is largely attributed to the integration of Google's Gemini AI model and enhanced AI search features. South Korea has historically been one of the few markets where local search engines dominated over global giants, making Google's rise a significant milestone. It highlights how the integration of generative AI is reshaping search engine dynamics and user preferences globally. In the productivity app rankings, Google Chrome secured the third spot with 42.45 million users, while OpenAI's ChatGPT also saw rapid growth, reaching 16.45 million users—2.6 times that of local portal Daum.
## BACKGROUND
Naver, founded in 1999, has long been South Korea's dominant web portal and search engine, offering a wide range of localized services. Daum is another major South Korean web portal that has historically competed with Naver but has recently seen its user base eclipsed by global AI-driven platforms like Google and ChatGPT.