[DigitalToday reporter Ho-jeong Lee] Naver is offering a "hiking-themed weather" service ahead of the autumn foliage season, enabling users to check changes in temperature, wind and rainfall based on route and departure time for major mountains nationwide.

Naver said on Oct. 8 it launched the hiking-themed weather service in September for 301 major mountains nationwide, providing coordinate-based ultra-short-term forecasts.

The hiking-themed weather service provides weather information based on mountain coordinates rather than nearby administrative-district units. It also combines hiking trail data held by Naver Map with time-slot forecasts.

When users select a hiking route and departure time, they can check segment-by-segment changes in temperature, wind and rainfall in line with actual travel time. It also provides "seasonal scenery" information, including sunrise times and the timing of autumn foliage and flowering seasons.

Naver enabled users to check seasonal scenery information at all times on the weather screen and plans to expand it to other themes closely related to hiking.

Naver has expanded its themed weather offerings since starting with baseball stadiums in August last year, adding theme parks, ski resorts, soccer stadiums and golf courses. It currently provides weather information for 868 themed areas, including 495 golf courses, 30 soccer stadiums and 20 baseball stadiums.

Cumulative subscriptions to the themed weather service totaled about 213,000 as of late September. That is about 2.9 times higher than about 73,000 in January this year. The most-subscribed location was Jamsil Baseball Stadium, with about 25,000 subscriptions.

Hye-jin Kim (김혜진), a Naver leader, said, "We introduced hiking as the sixth theme, and we will add a sea fishing theme within the year to expand the service across major outdoor activities."