Naver will formally launch its new community service, Lounge, on Jan. 28. Lounge is an open platform that allows topic-based interaction without a separate sign-up process. The move is seen as a strategy to address the limits of stagnant existing community services and secure real-time data needed to upgrade its in-house artificial intelligence (AI) model, AgentN.

◆Injecting "real time" to move beyond a stagnant "blog"... a rival to Threads

According to the industry on Jan. 7, Naver has started efforts to activate the community early by recruiting 500 official supporters ahead of the launch. Lounge is structured so that open chat is automatically linked to each topic board such as entertainment, sports, humor and daily life. Users can move between posts, comments and chat to communicate in real time.

Naver's decision to roll out a new community offering comes as growth in existing platforms slows and new platforms gain traction. According to MobileIndex, the monthly active users (MAU) of rival service Threads jumped more than threefold to 5,870,000 in November from 1,840,000 in February last year.

Naver Blog, by contrast, has vast volumes of data, logging 330,000,000 entries last year and forming 140,000,000 new neighbor relationships, but its user base is stagnant. The industry sees a view that the "record-based" nature of blogs and cafes is not enough to capture the latest trends and immediate reactions to issues.

◆Building a "virtuous cycle of data" linking search, community and AI

Naver defined the service as a model combined with its existing services rather than a standalone community. Il-gu Lee, head of Naver's Content Service Division, said, "Lounge is a newly introduced open community reflecting the needs of users who want to communicate more easily and lightly with other users about issues, trends and interests." He added, "We will strengthen synergy with Naver's other services such as Search, Home Feed and Open Talk."

The industry views the Lounge launch as a move aimed at both activating the platform by increasing time spent by users and strengthening AI competitiveness. It is structured so users do not stay only on search results but move into the community to talk, naturally increasing time spent on the platform.

The vivid data secured in the process is a core resource for AI competitiveness. That is because the AI agent AgentN, which Naver will unveil in the first half of this year, requires unstructured data containing immediate reactions and emotions to understand user context and predict actions.

In particular, the timing of the Lounge launch overlapping with the planned first-half release of AgentN is interpreted as a strategic intent to immediately feed secured real-time interest data into AI training. The upgraded AI is expected to be used again to improve search quality and refine shopping and advertising recommendation algorithms, completing a "virtuous cycle of data."

◆Concerns over a "second Agora" linger... a test of ability to manage public opinion

Still, risk management inherent to a portal-run community has been cited as a task. As Daum's Agora closed amid controversy over distortion of public opinion, open communities are highly likely to become entangled in attempts to manipulate public opinion by specific groups or disputes over political bias.

Naver, mindful of this, decided not to operate a politics and current affairs category. It also plans to use AI technology such as Cleanbot to filter malicious comments and abnormal user behavior. But observers also say it will be difficult to completely block controversies through technical measures alone, as entertainment or sports issues often escalate into social conflict.

An industry source said, "The fact that Naver reopened a community while bearing the risks of Agora shows how desperately it needs 'vivid data' for AI training." The source added, "If it succeeds, search and the community being tied together by AI will become a strong moat, but if it fails, it could be a self-defeating move that only increases the management burden."