South Korea’s two largest Internet giants Naver and Daum Kakao are going head-to-head to take the leadership in the local mobile platform war for consumers who are shifting their time away from PCs and toward smartphones and tablet computers.

The nation’s biggest portal Naver, which belatedly made forays into the mobile sector, is ramping up efforts to stay ahead by capitalizing on its knowhow in Internet content services.

Daum Kakao, which has long lagged behind Naver in search services, is poised to boost its standing in the fast-growing mobile market by taking advantage of its flagship service Kakao Talk, Korea’s dominant mobile messenger.

The two tech giants are gearing up to compete in similar mobile services, including search engine, blogs, video-sharing, televisions and taxi-hailing services.

Naver #Tag vs. Daum Kakao #Search

Naver unveiled a tag search service for its mobile platform last month. When users search for a keyword such as “movie” in the “#Tag” section on Naver’s mobile portal, they can find content from its Blogs, Post and Pholar with the hashtag #movie. Naver’s i-Rank algorithm allows the most sought-after contents to be listed at the top.

Daum Kakao also unveiled the #Search service with a user-friendly interface last month. The new service allows users to search and share information directly from the KakaoTalk chatroom, an unprecedented addition for messenger or SNS services.


Naver Post vs. Daum Kakao Brunch

Naver Post is a content service designed for smartphones and tablets. Users can read and write on a wide range of topics including information technology, diet, recipe, arts, travel, movies and automobiles as they do on the computer platform.

Daum Kakao launched a mobile app Brunch in June to stand up to Naver Post. In the app, any simple writings can be transformed into a magazine design with a simple editing tool. Similar to Naver Post, users can write on any topics and edit the writings both on mobile devices and computers. 


Naver Pholar vs. Daum Kakao Plain

Naver’s Pholar, a photo and video sharing app with hashtags taking center stage, is gaining a strong foothold among local young users. More than 1 million users have downloaded the app since it was launched in April. Pholar is designed to connect users with similar interests through hashtags.

Daum Kakao’s Plain is a simple blog app for the mobile environment. Users can use diverse sources such as text, image, link and video using a simple editing tool. Up to 30 photos can be uploaded at a time. With a magnifier tool, users can search for images and video on Daum portal site.


Naver TV Cast vs. Kakao TV

Daum Kakao launched Kakao TV on its Kakao Talk platform last month. The most outstanding feature is users can watch the same video with their friends on KakaoTalk chatroom while chatting with each other. While looking at the screen vertically, they can fix the video on the top and still chat on the bottom. 

Naver provides a streaming video service, having signed exclusive deals with local cable channels last year. According to a research firm Nielsen KoreaClick, the average time spent on Naver TV Cast per user was 19.1 minutes in May, beating YouTube‘s 15.5 minutes. 


Naver Taxi vs. Kakao Taxi

Users can use a taxi-calling service on its Naver Map app, which provides the service by partnering with the Ministry of Transport. By integrating location information of taxi drivers and clients, it enables users to find the drivers nearby.

Kakao Taxi, which was launched in March, is gaining a strong foothold in the local taxi market. The number of subscribers already reached 2 million last month and its drivers stood at 90,000. According to Nielsen KoreaClick, Kakao Taxi currently controls a 92 percent share of the taxi app market.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)