As the AI era arrives, competition between Naver and Google over leadership in South Korea's search market is intensifying. The Google app has topped the Naver app in monthly active users (MAU) for two straight months, but total time spent on the app is about 5.9 times longer on Naver than on Google. Naver also leads Google in referrals to external websites via search engines.

MAU, time spent on the app and search-engine referral share each measure different user behavior. None of the three indicators directly counts the total number of searches by domestic users.

Google app widens MAU lead, expands AI search entry points

Mobile Index said the Google app's MAU in August was 47,677,456, which was 423,842 higher than the Naver app's 47,253,614.

In July, the Google app also posted an MAU of 47,022,854, topping the Naver app's 46,845,017 for the first time. It was the first reversal since Mobile Index began compiling related statistics in March 2021.

The MAU gap widened to 423,842 in August from 177,837 in July, about a 2.4-fold increase. Over the same period, Google app users rose by 654,602, up 1.4 percent, while Naver app users increased by 408,597, up 0.9 percent.

Google offers not only search but also Discover, Lens and AI mode within the Google app. The AI mode, introduced in South Korea last year, is designed to answer complex questions and help users explore related information.

In May, Google also unveiled a feature that allows users to input text, images, files and video into the search box, and a search agent that performs tasks on behalf of users. This strengthened a structure in which users can ask questions and check results within the app, moving away from the existing method of entering search terms and checking links.

MAU only shows how many people used the app and does not distinguish which functions they used among search, Discover, Lens and AI mode. Therefore, the reversal in the Google app's MAU cannot be seen as a reversal in the number of search users.

Time spent is 5.9 times higher on Naver, includes content beyond search

Naver far outpaced Google in time spent on the app. In August, total time spent on the Naver app was 312,485,518 hours, about 5.9 times higher than the Google app's 53,167,559 hours.

Average monthly time spent per person also showed a gap of about 5.9 times, at 396.78 minutes for the Naver app and 66.92 minutes for the Google app. Naver app users spent an average of about 6 hours 37 minutes a month, compared with about 1 hour 7 minutes for the Google app.

Compared with July, total time spent on the Naver app increased 0.2 percent from 311,721,554 hours. The Google app fell 0.8 percent from 53,590,613 hours. Time spent per person fell 0.6 percent for Naver, to 396.78 minutes from 399.27 minutes, and declined 2.1 percent for Google, to 66.92 minutes from 68.38 minutes.

Naver's long time spent reflects a structure in which users consume various content within the app, including news, blogs, cafes, shopping and its short-form service Clip, as well as search. This is analyzed as the result of Naver using search as a starting point to connect users to content, commerce and local services and increase time spent within the app.

The two apps differ in the services they provide and how they are used. Therefore, the gap in total time spent shows each app's overall usage structure and is difficult to interpret directly as a gap in time spent on search.

Naver leads in search-engine referrals, AI search has counting limits

Naver led Google in the share of traffic moving to external websites via search engines. InternetTrend data for Aug. 1 to 31 showed Naver at 60.53 percent and Google at 32.49 percent. Daum was at 3.72 percent and Microsoft Bing at 3.12 percent.

The InternetTrend figures do not mean the total number of searches generated by search engines. They calculate each search engine's share based on visits flowing into the surveyed websites through search.

As a result, usage that ends on the search results screen or with an AI answer without moving to an external site may not be reflected in the statistics. It also needs to be considered that both Google and Naver have recently been providing AI answers directly on the search results screen.

Mobile Index and InternetTrend also differ in what they cover. Mobile Index compiles the number of users and time spent for Android and iOS apps and does not include web usage. InternetTrend measures the share of search engines that generated external inflows based on website visit behavior.

Therefore, the Google app surpassing the Naver app in MAU and Naver leading in search-engine referral share are not conflicting results. The Google app's MAU shows the scale of user touchpoints, while the search-engine referral share shows the proportion of search that leads to visits to external sites.

Naver, which is maintaining an edge in search-engine referrals, is expanding its existing search user base into AI search and its own services. Its AI tab, officially launched on June 25, surpassed 10,000,000 MAU as of early August, and the AI briefing applied to integrated search has about 30,000,000 monthly net users. Naver is also pursuing a strategy that links AI search results to shopping, Place and reservations.

The reversal in MAU between the two apps can be seen as a sign that Google's domestic mobile touchpoints are expanding. But it cannot be definitively concluded that leadership in the domestic search market has changed based on the number of app users alone. The shift in competitive dynamics needs to be judged by looking at time spent on apps, search-engine referrals, actual search counts and the volume of AI answer usage.

An industry official said, "MAU shows the scale of people who used the service, and time spent indicates how long they stayed in the app." The official added, "Since search-engine referral share is also the proportion that moved to external sites, it is hard to judge superiority in the search market with just one indicator."