Naver said on July 14 it will accept advance applications for participating cafes through July 22 ahead of its 'TikiTakaCafe' event supporting communication and information sharing among cafe members.

Naver plans to review applicant cafes for topic suitability and activity levels and will announce the cafes selected as TikiTakaCafe on July 29. Cafes with activity scores of at least 1,000 can apply. The main event, involving cafe members, will run from Aug. 5 to Aug. 31.

TikiTakaCafe is an event in which members communicate by posting topic-related posts and comments on a dedicated board created in participating cafes and receive rewards. The event will target cafes related to everyday life and daily routines, including family, parenting, daily living, education, pets, health, dieting, the economy and finance. Naver plans to gradually expand participation topics starting with this promotion.

Participation is completed by writing 4 posts and 8 comments on the dedicated board during the promotion period. Participants will receive benefits worth a total of 200 million won, including Naver Pay points, through a drawing. It will also provide a small benefit to users who write a post for the first time this year in selected cafes.

Naver plans to select locations with active member participation and many high-quality posts during the event period as 'Outstanding TikiTakaCafe' and provide growth support funds of up to 1 million won.

Jun Han (한준), head of Naver's user-generated content community, said, "Through this event, we hope it becomes an opportunity for cafe members to actively share their interests and experiences, and for useful information and high-quality content to naturally accumulate within cafes." He added, "We will continue to expand programs so cafes and users can grow together."

Naver is also strengthening various features to revitalise the cafe ecosystem. In February, it opened 'Cafe Biz Center', which lets cafe managers manage advertising and safe transaction revenue in an integrated manner, and in May it introduced the 'Member Rewards' feature that returns revenue to members. It is also highlighting cafes with expertise through 'Naver Mate', an artificial intelligence fellowship program.