[DigitalToday reporter Ho-jung Lee (이호정)] Google has expanded the release in South Korea of its AI-equipped browser, "Gemini in Chrome", putting the AI response of top local portal Naver to a full-fledged test.

Industry sources said on April 24 that Google, through an update on April 21, built a structure that handles webpage summaries, cross-tab information comparisons, email drafting, image conversion and integrations with Gmail, Maps, Calendar and YouTube inside the browser.

It is a plan to let users finish browsing and organizing without going through a portal, and it is signaling significant changes to the domestic search market landscape.

◆Google's offensive - bypassing portals in the browser

At the core of Google's strategy is "controlling the entryway". If it absorbs browsing demand at the browser stage, before portal searches begin, it reduces the paths that take users to Naver. For example, with multiple shopping tabs open, a user can type in the sidebar, "Compare the prices and specs of the products that are open in a table", and the AI organizes results across tabs. Tasks previously handled by moving back and forth through portal search boxes are completed inside the browser.

There is also timing to this strategy. It is also a response to moves by OpenAI and Perplexity to speed up their entry into the search market with AI-equipped browsers. Some have also assessed that after a U.S. antitrust lawsuit rejected demands to sell Chrome, Google has been able to accelerate integrating AI into the browser. It is read as a strategy to protect dominance by turning Chrome, which holds about 65 percent of the global browser market, into an AI hub.

In this environment, Naver's figures are also wavering. Based on InternetTrend last month, Naver led domestic search share with 63.83 percent versus Google's 28.67 percent. But as ad inventory has shrunk versus its previous integrated search due to the introduction of AI briefings, and query dispersion to other AI search services has overlapped, some brokerages forecast first-quarter search platform revenue growth this year will be limited to about 3 to 4 percent from a year earlier.

◆Naver's counterattack - seize the end of execution

Naver's countermeasure is its "AI tab", to be launched in the second quarter. If Google seeks to control the start of browsing in the browser, Naver is responding with a strategy to keep the end of execution within its platform.

The AI tab is structured so AI summarizes a range of content, including news, blogs and cafes, from existing integrated search and expands results through follow-up queries.

For example, if a user searches for "places to visit in Jeju with a 5-year-old", AI compiles travel content and suggests recommended places, then extends to designing travel itineraries through additional queries. A key point is a structure that does not stop at simple Q&A, but links with its vertical services such as shopping, places and pay, completing the process from discovery to booking and payment within the platform. It began a closed beta test for employees on April 17, and it released a shopping agent earlier in February.

Naver also has areas where it is relatively strong. Even if Google's Gemini emphasizes information summaries and comparison functions, restaurant reservations, shopping payments and local place data in South Korea are areas Naver has accumulated over a long period. Naver also points to a differentiation factor in that it can offer convenience centered on in-app payments, unlike global agent services.

Data underpins this local service competitiveness. If Google emphasizes a global general-purpose model, Naver seeks differentiation with data tailored to South Korean users. It recently signed a business agreement with EBS to secure highly reliable educational content as training data, and it appointed Kim Kwang-hyun (김광현) as chief data and content officer early this year to strengthen its data asset management system. The view is that in a phase of leveling up in model performance, refined data determines AI service quality.

Still, Naver is also facing rising infrastructure costs from GPU investment to advance AI briefings and the AI tab, leaving it the task of proving AI is not just a search aid but a tool for meaningful revenue conversion.

An industry official said, "Google is trying to capture users' time first in the browser, and Naver is trying to tie up that time with booking and payment." The official added, "In the end, who gets deeper into the user's daily route will decide the outcome of this fight."