Naver said on the 4th that it is launching the AI fellowship program "Naver Mate" starting today to explore the direction of good content that can create synergy with AI together with creators.
Naver Mate is a program to build a high-quality content ecosystem based on topic-specific expertise and diversity among creators active across Naver's UGC (user-generated content) services such as Blog, Cafe, Knowledge iN, and Premium Content. Targeting creators on Blog, Cafe, Knowledge iN, and Premium Content, Naver will publish about 3,000 creators each month based on the number of AI Briefing citations in the top 10 institutional sector categories such as travel, life, and tech, and in 25 subtopics such as health, parenting, film, and automobiles.
Through the Mate program, Naver will provide about 20 billion won in activity support annually. Selected creators will receive a monthly basic activity stipend of 300,000 won, while outstanding creators in each of the top 10 categories will receive an additional 3 million won per month, and the top creators in each category will receive an additional 10 million won per month.
Naver will operate the Naver Mate program in beta throughout 2026 and plans to diversify the program by actively gathering creators' feedback. Going forward, the scope will expand to include "clip creators," broadening the foundation for UGC creators across text, images, and video to grow together within the AI-era content ecosystem.
This afternoon, Naver will introduce the first "Naver Mates" for each topic on the official Naver Mate page. They are top creators by AI Briefing citation count in their respective fields, and Naver said it plans to work with creators to concretize what content chosen by users in the AI era should look like.
Creators selected as Naver Mates have the official "Naver Mate" emblem attached to their profiles and content, allowing users to more easily find Naver Mate content across various Naver services, including integrated search and AI Briefing. This enables creators, as "topic-specific expert creators," to showcase their expertise and credibility and is expected to offer various growth opportunities such as gaining neighbors, paid subscriptions, and Cafe memberships.
Lee Il-gu, head of Naver's content services institutional sector, said, "Even in the AI era, we will encourage creators to make better content and strengthen an ecosystem in which high-quality content infused with human experience and context is produced consistently," adding, "To ensure this momentum feeds back into strengthening creators' influence and revenue, we will actively explore new content directions that can create synergy with AI and continue the journey of building consensus among all users around good creators and content."