Works Mobile
Naver will start charging for the use of “Naver Works,” which was originally launched last year as a free company cooperative service, from as early as next month.
The company, which was considered to be only an Internet portal service provider, is entering the cloud-based business to business (B2B) software market in earnest, showing movement to expand its business areas. In particular, the global cloud-based business software market is being led by global software firms such as Google, Microsoft, and SAP, and Naver has decided to compete with global software giants with its cloud service connected with mobile devices.
The company has recently decided to invest 100 billion won (US$85.65 million) in the advanced hardware business, including robots, and is expanding its business to areas where it should compete with global internet service provider Google. Now, all eyes are on whether or not Naver can have a competitive relationship with Google in the cloud-based B2B market.
According to industry sources on Sept. 16, Naver will upgrade its mobile application, tentatively named “One App,” that adds more functions, including mobile VoIP using wireless internet and chatting services, to the existing “Naver Work” services such as e-mail, calendar, and web office, and start charging for the services as early as Oct., accelerating the global market invasion. The service name of “Naver Works” has also changed to “Works Mobile.”
The Works Mobile service will be managed by the Works Mobile Corporation, which separated from Naver in March in a bid to tap into the global B2B market. Recently, the company has also established a subsidiary in Japan to target the local market.
In fact, Naver has focused on developing cooperation solutions for global firms from last year. In Dec. last year, the company signed an MOU with idsTrust to develop business cooperative solutions called “WiseOne Smart Runner” in order to realize smart work, making efforts for spam filtering, which is a major part of corporate mail service, continuous security control, and data and network encryption. Also, the company has already been providing the Naver Works service for free to companies with less than 300 workers from Feb. last year. Naver Works is a groupware solution that allows a firm to use Naver’s email, address book, and N drive as its business system just with its domain.
The biggest task for the Naver Works is to make inroads into the global market. However, it will offer paid services in the domestic market as well.
In order to provide domestic services, Naver has joined hands with Woongjing to target the B2B market. Woongjin is maintaining the largest share in the small and mid-size firms market as it sells, establishes, and supports the corporate software of global enterprise resource planning firm SAP in the domestic market.