Nina Jobst
Research expert covering South Korea
Search engines in South Korea - statistics & facts
In times when the internet has permeated every aspect of life, it has become a daily necessity and something most people in South Korea heavily rely on in everyday life. Be it shopping, online education, finances, or even smart home appliances – the possibilities for internet usage are almost endless. But still, one of the most common purposes of using the internet in South Korea is to look up information. For those inquiries, search engines that show a lot of information at once, like Google or the domestic Naver, are usually used.
Google vs. Naver in South Korea
Google has been the long-standing worldwide search engine leader, and the same held true in South Korea. In 2023, Google claimed the highest search engine market share in the country. However, since the end of 2021, Google has lost some of its influence in the Korean market, and the domestic web portal Naver of tech giant Naver Corp. was able to strengthen its position. While Google still has the edge over other search engines by far, Naver has picked up what Google lost and is also developing a stronger hold on the mobile search engine market. Although Google boasted a high search engine market share, according to a survey conducted in 2024, most South Koreans still preferred to use Naver to look for information. Google and Naver differ a lot in their Search Engine Result Page (SERP), as Naver’s result page layout differs according to each search query. For example, Naver SERPs include a selection of categories, such as websites, Q&A (Naver Knowledge iN), pictures, news, shopping, blogs, videos, and more.How do South Korean use search engines?
As its name suggests, search engines are used to look for various types of information spanning a wide range of topics in South Korea. In terms of shopping, search engines were the most common way for South Koreans to discover new brands. Even when someone wanted to deepen their online research on brands, search engines were still the top choice over half of the time. While the most common search queries on Google reflected some actual trends, the highest-ranking search keyword was Naver. Google was often used as a start-off point for using the internet, as many search queries indicated the use of other online services such as YouTube, Daum, or translation tools. Despite most of the common search entries being written in Korean, google.com ranked above its Korean competitor in search engine referral shares.
