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By Jun Ji-hye
Local ICT companies are striving to expand their bases in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector to survive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. But the firms including the nation's top online portal operator Naver seem to be just following the business models of global ICT giants such as Google and Amazon.
This has left local firms behind while leading global giants are pushing ahead, posing major challenges for Korean companies to emerge from the role of fast followers
Google has built itself into an international powerhouse by flexing its financial muscle and taking over promising companies. The firm has also been focusing on the AI and autonomous vehicle businesses.
Moves of the nation's No.1 search engine have been similar to those of Google _ one example is the Korean firm applying AI technologies to its news search system, just as the American company did with its Gmail service.
"Companies like Google and Amazon have attracted global attention through their AI businesses," an official from Naver said, asking not to be named. "So, we are also putting forth efforts to develop AI technologies."
Naver has developed an AI platform, dubbed "Clova," in partnership with its chat app affiliate Line. Clova serves as an "AI secretary" capable of carrying out duties requested by a wide range of clients.
The company official added that LG Uplus, the nation's third-largest mobile carrier, has made its entry into the AI speaker market using Naver's Clova platform.
"We continue seeking to enhance cooperation with other companies to expand our Clova platform," the official said. "This will raise our competitiveness in the global market."
For its part, SK Telecom, the nation's biggest mobile carrier, has officially said it is benchmarking cases of e-commerce giant Amazon, which has captured AI and cloud computing platform markets through enormous investments in new technologies.
SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho said during the World Mobile Congress held in Barcelona last year that the firm is seeking to be a new ICT company rather than being satisfied with being a telecommunications service provider. He said this is why the firm is modeling itself after Amazon.
In accordance with this vision, SK Telecom has made large investments in research and development, seeking to lead the development of AI technologies here. The company was the first to release an AI speaker in Korea.
Meanwhile, Kakao Corp., operator of the nation's dominant messaging app KakaoTalk, has dominated the mobile scene here by using the influence of its messenger app to provide a range of services such as games, e-commerce and taxi hailing.
The moves, however, have been regarded by many as the Korean company following the moves of China's Tencent. The Chinese firm has rapidly grown by expanding its businesses to the fintech, game and content sectors, earlier than Kakao.
A Kakao official said it was true that the evolution of Kakao and Tencent have taken similar directions, but added that the company doesn't regard Tencent as its rival.
"We are developing ourselves to do better," he said.
