Naver will launch a fellowship program worth 20 billion won a year to strengthen the content ecosystem for creators in the artificial intelligence (AI) era.

Naver said on June 4 it launched the fellowship program 'Naver Mate' to explore a direction for creating AI synergy with creators. Naver Mate spotlights creators active across Naver’s user-generated content (UGC) services, including Blog, Cafe, Knowledge iN and Premium Content.

Naver will select and disclose about 3,000 creators each month based on the number of citations in AI briefings, across the top 10 categories such as travel, lifestyle and tech and 25 subtopics such as health, parenting, movies and cars. The first Naver Mate list is set to be introduced on the official page on the afternoon of June 4.

Creators selected as Naver Mates will receive an official emblem on their profiles and content, and will be provided support funds worth about 20 billion won a year. Recipients will be paid 300,000 won a month as a basic activity fee, while outstanding creators in each of the 10 top categories will receive an additional 3 million won a month and the top creator in each category will receive an additional 10 million won a month.

Naver plans to run the program as a beta throughout 2026 and upgrade it by collecting feedback from creators. It also plans to expand eligibility to include short-form service creators called 'Clip Creators' and broaden the foundation for creators in various formats, including text, images and video, to grow.

Lee Il-gu (이일구), head of Naver’s Content Service division, said, "We will encourage creators to make better content even in the AI era, and strengthen an ecosystem in which high-quality content that contains human experiences and context is produced consistently."