DigitalToday is activating a system to publish simultaneously in 4 languages — Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese — as it moves to become global K-media. It is the first domestic attempt to combine search engine optimisation (SEO), generative AI optimisation (GEO) and automated article translation and interpretation in response to the AI era.

Kim Seong-hyeon (김성현), CEO of DigitalToday, unveiled the outlet's vision and strategy at the "DigitalToday Companion Meetup" held on May 14 at Hecto Media's headquarters in Seoul's Gangnam district. Kim said, "If a reporter writes one Korean article, without even realising it, within 10 minutes it goes out in English, then in Japanese and Chinese." He said, "For an article to be published on D2 means that whether it is a press release, an interview or a new product description, it is distributed not only in Korean but also in multiple languages." He aims to combine assets built over 19 years of covering information and communications with AI technology to expand from a domestic IT specialist outlet to global K-media.

DigitalToday has operated an AI news editing system since 2023 using, for the first time in South Korea, a ChatGPT enterprise API. As the number of AI-filed articles grew to about 7,000 a month, total article volume increased 10 times, online traffic rose 9 times (up to a maximum of 15 times) and online advertising revenue expanded 295 times.

The structure in which Naver accounted for about 90 percent of inbound channels has also been reshaped into a 50-50 split between Naver and Google. Another feature is that traffic has been concentrated in global news on digital assets and coins as it automatically collects and translates global IT articles using AI agents. Kim said, "When the number of articles doubled, traffic increased fourfold," adding, "It is the complete opposite of the trend of search traffic falling in the AI era."

The multilingual article publication function has been provided since March this year. When a Korean article is published, AI sequentially posts English, Japanese and Chinese versions in a structure that exposes them in search results on local Google, Yahoo and others. It built an in-house system to secure translation accuracy, including handling proper nouns. Kim said, "AI technology is something anyone can use, but why can others still not do it," adding, "It is the result of reporters and developers moving like one team, and it is something hard to achieve by outsourcing." He said this has positioned the outlet as a media organisation that provides global IT articles in multiple languages the fastest.

◆Targeting ChatGPT and Perplexity citations... Expanding global exposure through simultaneous optimisation for search engines and generative AI

Differentiation work is also under way in the generative AI exposure area (GEO). It is responding in a customised way after analysing that reference policies differ by generative AI, such as ChatGPT prioritising old authoritative domains, Perplexity citing the latest articles and Google Gemini giving priority to articles that rank high in its own search results.

Its ability to raise its DR (domain rating) score, a metric of domain trust, to the top tier of 71 points or higher has also become a global SEO foundation. Kim said, "Among large domestic media, there is not one that has reached 71 points or higher," adding, "The higher the DR score, the higher the probability of being exposed at the top of search results."

Automated article creation for DART (electronic disclosure) is also being activated in earnest. It classifies 140 types of mandatory disclosures by listed companies — such as changes of CEO, paid-in capital increases, capital reductions and decisions on collateral — and an AI agent automatically generates articles that combine a summary with the original text. Based on recent disclosures, about 1,000 are being written and distributed as articles per day, and 5,000 to 7,000 per week.

Kim said, "Now the volume has increased to the point that we rather need to think about distribution channels," adding, "Other media are also showing interest and are coming to us directly." An assessment says it presented a new model for domestic IT specialist media by expanding to global multilingual publication and disclosure automation based on 19 years of information and communications reporting assets.