How the online community works in Korea
In fact, Korea has a quite unique online community. You may have noticed if you have lived in Korea for a while. Unlike the majority part of the world, google is not as powerful as Naver is in Korea as a search engine. That is, it is the ultimate reason why it is hard to enter the SEO market in Korea. Naver is something that has existed in Korea since Internet started booming. What Naver is known for is the web community organically formed by web users. There is another website called ´Daum´, which also has the functionality of web community. The two websites mentioned, Naver and Daum, dominate the internet search market in Korea. Even official companies sometimes use Naver cafes instead of having their own webpage. These cafes are multipurpose, which can vary from personal blogging, looking for internships / job positions to company webpages. The concept of Naver cafe and Daum café is basically something that allows people to form web communities themselves. Unlike having separate webpages for different purposes, Koreans use Naver or Daum cafes.
When you want to tell a Korean to look something up online, you shouldn’t probably tell a Korean to ‘google’ them. Rather, telling them to ‘naver’ it instead may be more appropriate. Koreans also have their own web tv channel called TV Africa. I would call it a Korean version of Youtube. In addition, what Naver is known for among the youngsters is called Navertoon. The list goes on and on. It is also much more convenient to use Naver Map instead of Google Map in Korea. It tells you when the buses are coming exactly at what time and exactly where the bus is. No matter how much you love using the Google map, it is simply not as useful as Naver map in Korea.
Another interesting aspect of Naver is knowledge iN (지식인). It is basically a big forum community like reddit. Unlike reddit that just has its own website; Naver is operated by a search engine browser in a way. When it was first started, it was not as professional as it is today where you can select and choose who to ask. The options are to people in general, doctors, lawyers, and so on depending on who you choose.
As a foreigner, it might be difficult to navigate these sites around unless you are an expert in Korean. Of course, if you don’t know how to speak Korea, it might be a little hard to utilize it. But, it is good to understand culture while you live in it. Good luck!
