Naver (NAVER), which acquired Dunamu, the operator of Korea's largest virtual asset exchange Upbit, said it will invest 10 trillion won over five years to grow the artificial intelligence (AI) and Web3 (see keywords) ecosystem. Naver plans to target the global market by combining Dunamu's Blockchain technology with Naver's AI and search infrastructure, and Naver Pay's payment and financial services.

Lee Hae-jin, Naver chair, Song Chi-hyung, Dunamu chair, Choi Soo-yeon, Naver CEO, and Park Sang-jin, Naver Financial CEO, on the 27th announced a joint global expansion vision at Naver's 1784 headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. Naver Financial and Dunamu resolved the previous day to exchange shares, and Dunamu is set to become a 100% subsidiary of Naver Financial. Naver will exercise voting rights for 46.5% of Naver Financial's equity.

Graphic=Jeong Seo-hee

CEO Choi Soo-yeon said, "It is important to seek sufficient understanding from external stakeholders about the vision," and added, "Once this contract is completed, we will have built the full lineup of user-data-technology-service-capital power, and we will thoroughly prepare to boldly jump into the global Web3 market."

Choi said, "With the popularization trend of Blockchain and the current shift to agentic AI, where AI makes judgments and handles tasks on its own, this is a crucial moment when new opportunities are opening," explaining the background of the corporations' convergence.

Lee Hae-jin (left), Naver founder and board chair, and Song Chi-hyung, Dunamu chair and board chair./Courtesy of each company

Chair Lee Hae-jin said, "Naver's AI capabilities must create synergy with Web3 to preempt the next-generation market. For Dunamu and Naver Financial not to fall behind global digital finance industry trends, a rapid decision-making system is needed, and only by making new attempts and taking on challenges that global corporations have not yet undertaken can we survive the competition with them."

Chair Song Chi-hyung said, "By joining forces, the three companies aim to design next-generation financial infrastructure that combines AI and Blockchain, and to build a new global platform order that spans beyond payment into finance and lifestyle services."

☞ What is Web3

Web3 is a term that encompasses technologies that decentralize data ownership and control on the internet. If Web1 was a way to simply read bulletin boards and Web2 was a way to read and write data, Web3 adds "ownership" to this.

※ This article has been translated by AI. Share your feedback here.