Naver has rebounded in South Korea’s search market after strengthening its artificial intelligence (AI) search. By contrast, over the same period the centre of gravity in news consumption appears to have shifted from portal front pages and search to YouTube’s recommendation algorithms. AI is taking hold as a defensive tool for portal search, while the news distribution order is being reshaped around video platforms.

According to market research firm InternetTrend and Naver on Thursday, Naver’s average search share rose 2.52 percentage points to 66.34 percent after the beta launch of its AI Tab service, from 63.82 percent before the launch. On May 24, it surged to as high as 81.34 percent, briefly topping the 80 percent mark.

That runs counter to concerns that demand for portal search could fall as generative AI spreads. The shift is seen as the result of Naver separating AI Tab into a standalone service while tightly linking it to its existing search infrastructure and daily-life services such as shopping, Place and reservations. It broadened the role of search so users do not stop at checking AI answers but move on to real actions such as purchases, reservations and visits.

◆Naver builds a search defensive line with AI Tab

AI Tab focuses on users exploring information in a conversational way rather than listing search results in the traditional format. Within a month of its beta launch for Naver Plus membership users, it surpassed 3 million monthly active users. The click-through rate (CTR) for shopping and Place reservation areas averaged around 25 percent, while the share of positive feedback on answers came to 71 percent.

Naver launched AI Tab to all users on Wednesday. Starting on July 21, it will introduce advertising in the AI Briefing area and begin monetisation. The move targets both an expansion in search share and stronger profitability. It also plans to expand AI Briefing coverage to about 40 percent of all search queries by year-end.

Naver aims to use AI search not as a replacement for existing search but as a complement that increases time spent. The strategy can be seen as an effort to capture user behaviour in which people get an initial answer from generative AI such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, then return to a portal to check the latest information, a South Korea-specific context, and whether purchases or reservations are possible.

Naver’s claimed strengths are also aligned with that. About 20 million creators on its platform produce more than 630 million pieces of content a year, and it has accumulated South Korea-focused daily-life information such as local, shopping, finance and health data. That is an area overseas AI services or global search engines would struggle to replace in a short time. Naver has also been pushing since last year a deal to build 30,000 new knowledge-content items over the next 3 years.

◆News consumption shifts from search to recommendations

Separate from Naver’s rebound in the search market, different changes are emerging in news distribution. YouTube is establishing itself as a key gateway for news consumption beyond its role as a video platform.

According to the Korea Press Foundation’s 2025 Media Audience Survey, 30.0 percent of respondents said they used online video platforms for news, up sharply from 18.4 percent a year earlier. The survey covered 6,000 adult men and women aged 19 or older from July to September last year. In the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2026, YouTube’s news usage rate in South Korea was 49 percent, well above the average of 31 percent across 48 countries surveyed. By contrast, the portal news usage rate was 66.5 percent, the lowest since the survey began.

The core change is how people consume news. Previously, portal news use followed an 'exploration' structure, with users searching directly or selecting news on portal main pages. Now an 'exposure' structure is rapidly spreading, in which YouTube’s home screen and Shorts recommendation system surface news content even without user intent. The first point of contact for news is shifting from portal front pages to YouTube recommendation feeds.

The shift is affecting media companies’ strategies as well. Video-platform strategies such as YouTube channels, Shorts and live broadcasts are emerging as a separate axis alongside optimising for portal exposure. Some media outlets have begun managing YouTube views and subscriber counts as key performance indicators instead of homepage traffic. Concerns are also being raised that as reliance on YouTube grows, risks will rise alongside it, including sudden swings in reach due to algorithm changes and the spread of provocative content or disinformation.

As YouTube influences opinion formation in the distribution process without producing news directly, debate is also getting under way over platform responsibility and transparency. Inside and outside the Broadcast Media and Communications Commission, there is talk of the need to overhaul institutions to fit the spread of platform-centred news consumption.

Kim Jong-cheol (김종철), head of the commission, said at a recent press briefing, "In the past, media companies produced news and led distribution, but now we are in an era in which platforms effectively decide the routes of access to news," adding, "We need social discussion that fits the changed media environment." Even so, many argue that applying existing broadcast regulation methods to platforms as they are should be approached cautiously, leaving the task of creating a new regulatory framework.

Ultimately, South Korea’s platform market is shifting away from a structure in which a single portal dominated search, news, commerce and content distribution, toward one in which leadership is divided by function. Naver is holding onto search demand with AI search and daily-life data, while YouTube is absorbing time spent consuming news through recommendation algorithms.

An industry official said, "An increase in search share and a portal maintaining influence as a media platform are no longer the same thing," adding, "Users are already handling information checks and news consumption separately on different platforms, and this separation will become more distinct."