Native name
|
네이버 주식회사 |
---|---|
Public | |
Traded as | KRX: |
Industry | Internet |
Founded | June 1999 |
Founder | |
Headquarters | NHN green factory, Bundang, Seongnam, South Korea |
Key people
|
, Founder & Chairman , CEO |
Products | See list here. |
Revenue | 2,147 billion KRW (2011) |
620 billion KRW (2011) | |
452 billion KRW (2011) | |
Number of employees
|
2,501 (02/26/13) |
Subsidiaries |
Line Corporation Naver |
Website | NaverCorp |
Naver Corporation (KRX: ) is an Internet content service operator headquartered in Seongnam, South Korea. Established in 1999 as Naver Com (네이버컴), it operates the Naver search portal and Hangame gaming services. The company was renamed to NHN Corporation (Next Human Network) in September 2001 to reflect its mergers in 2000. The company renamed again to Naver Corporation on October 1, 2013 to reflect the company's spin-off of its subsidiary NHN Entertainment to oversee its Hangame operations.
Its subsidiaries in Japan operate the Line messaging application as well as the Japanese versions of Naver and Hangame.
Naver Com was established in 1999, operating the Naver search portal. In 2000, Naver merged with Hangame Communications, Inc., maker of online games, and a couple of other companies. In 2001, Naver Com was renamed to NHN Corporation ("Next Human Network"), although both divisions continued to operate under their original brand names. Naver and Hangame each had established affiliates in Japan in 2000. These likewise merged in October 2003 to become NHN Japan with Naver Japan and Hangame Japan as subsidiaries. In June 2004 NHN formed Ourgame, a joint venture company in China with Sea Rainbow Holdings, though NHN eventually sold its stake in October 2011. In July 2005, NHN USA was incorporated and launched the ijji game portal in May 2007. NHN sold its stake in this enterprise in December 2011.
In 2008 NHN appeared on the Forbes Global 2000 list for the first time. [6] That same year NHN had the largest market capitalization among KOSDAQ-listed companies before being transferred to the Kospi market in November. In 2009 Kim Sang-Hun of NHN and Jing-Wan Kim of Samsung were the only South Korean CEOs to appear on Asia's Fab 50.[7]