The anchor of the image search service competition of both domestic portals has risen with Naver`s `Smart Lens` launching.

The image search service competition between Naver and Kakao does not simply mean the image search market confrontation. In the artificial intelligence (AI) service market, the focus of the industry is shifting from ‘searcher’ to ‘messenger-stronger’ who are going to win.

According to the industry on July 13, the search service market is undergoing a `spectrum expansion` from `text search` to `image search` with the development of AI technology. The image search market is regarded as a future food business for portals because it can diversify the company profit model by linking with shopping and advertisement service once it takes the initiative.


Recently, Naver launched so called `Smart Lens`, an image search service that searches for similar images by taking pictures or uploading image files from the Naver application search window. `Scopic` is a service that allows users to use visual search technology and deep learning (technology that allows a computer to think and learn like oneself) to use images captured or stored by a smartphone camera as search words. The AI finds images which are similar to information related to object names in images.

Last month Kakao added a service to search for similar images with deep learning technology in KakaoTalk. User should just tap and hold on the shared image in the KakaoTalk chat room and select `# Search`. Utilizing the image data accumulated after the portal, the user searches for a similar landscape image when searching for a landscape image, and searches for a person in similar clothes or poses when searching for a person.

Especially, the industry is focusing on whether it can change the composition of AI (based on Naver`s share): 2 (share of other services such as kakao) in the Korean search service market where AI-based image search is fixed.

Experts believe that Naver will gain market leadership in image search services with high search share. Image retrieval is an explanation that it is advantageous to have a large amount of data as it is important to interpret the recognized image correctly.

Currently, Naver is the dominant player in the domestic PC platform, accounting for 70% of the search market share and 20% for Naver while in mobile, 80% and 6%, respectively.

Kim Dong-hee, a researcher at the Korea Meritz Securities Research Institute, stated, "Image search is a battle for big data fights, who have a lot of domestic user data and content. Naver has a clear advantage in this regard." If there is synergy between Naver image search and Naver shopping Profit growth is expected."

Lee Min-ah, researcher at KTB Investment & Securities stated, "Although Kakao has data related to KakaoTalk, it is far from search.” Naver`s accumulated search data suggests that Kakao is difficult to catch up with in the short term.

However, there is also an analysis that it is difficult to predict the game because there is a card called `KakaoTalk` which is used by about 42 million people.

"Kakao has an influential social platform called KakaoTalk that will evolve the service (in a different way from its competitors)," stated Kim Dong-hee, a researcher at Meritz Securities. Image search, KakaoTalk and a variety of supplementary services in the instant messenger can be used in a way that can gain access to the image in terms of accessibility. It is interpreted that Kakao should be multiplied by spreading the usage habit of `image search is done in KakaoTalk.

An industry expert said, "It should be able to search images on any platform by using image search in PC version KakaoTalk if Kakao changes the search market by chance in AI period."

By Kim Soo Yeon newsnews@


[ copyright ⓒ The Digitaltimes ]