Upstage, an artificial intelligence technology company, said on May 7 it has acquired AXZ, the operator of portal site Daum, from Kakao and will make a full-scale entry into the AI portal business.
Upstage and Kakao in January signed a memorandum of understanding for a share swap in which Kakao would transfer all of its AXZ stake to Upstage and acquire some Upstage shares. After about 4 months of due diligence, they have now signed the final agreement.
Upstage plans to combine its in-house large language model Solar with Daum’s search engine and content data to advance it into an AI portal. It aims to differentiate with a ContextAI service that moves beyond simple keyword searches by understanding intent and context and presenting answers.
Synergies are also expected with an independent AI foundation model consortium led by Upstage. The company said that if the model is combined with Daum, it could lead to the spread of an AI service ecosystem.
Upstage CEO Sung-hoon Kim (김성훈) said the acquisition, which combines Upstage’s technology with a national portal with a history of about 30 years, will be a symbolic turning point in opening a new era of AI portals.
Seul-gi Son
sageson@d-today.co.kr