Naver is the largest korean portal site in Korea based on search engine, one of NHN Corp. (KOSDAQ 035420) It started from venture incubation in Samsung SDS in 1999. It was one of search engines in Korea and offered search services to portal and internet company. In 2000, Naver merged Hangame, Oneq and search solutions. After merging, the Hangame returned a good profit by charging service fee for simple online game such as poker.

In 2002, they tried to make a good database with encyclopedia and user-generatied Q&A informations. Firstly they launched search engine websites “knowledge searches” which is an answer to a question that has been asked by another search engine user. For example in Naver KnowledgeIN (IN means human beings in Korean) registered users can post a question on any topic of their choice. Some users ask very personal questions pertaining to relationships and the like since the user’s real identity is not exposed.

When various users answer a question they are awarded a certain amount of points, the person who asked the question can then select the best answer and will be awarded points. This user can then ask questions on the website using the points that he/she was awarded. The users with most points are ranked daily with the option to display their real identities, if they choose to do so. Unlike Wikipedia, Q&A promotes a very active community based atmosphere for questions and answers.

For example, if you have an question about “why shows black screen in avi capture?”, once you type “black screen capture”, you can get various related quetions and answers. Naver reflects reader’s judge and user’s choice for ranking. Millions of folks who have answered questions are ranked as “ordinary,” “knowledgeable,” “highly knowledgeable,” “supernatural,” or “gods.”

Naver is great because you get all sorts of detailed information in very specific questions and answers . The database now has some 37 million questions and answers that can get returned with search results. The idea is so popular among Koreans that most other search engines in the country including Daum and Yahoo! Korea now offer their own versions of Knowledge-In services. Naver’s KIN proved the value of user-generated contents, but database continually has been accumulated without editing and renewal of user. So it may be difficult to find proper information or out of date.

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