ASIATODAY kicks off “Make Naver Right” movement

Oct 14, 2022, 09:25 am

ASIATODAY, a comprehensive daily newspaper that has been in existence for 17 years, has launched a national movement called “Make Naver Right”.

Naver has grown into a conglomerate with 54 affiliates by expanding businesses using ‘search power’. The damage to the public, including small business owners, has worsened, and opportunities for growth of the Korean media have been removed. “Make Naver Right” is a movement that began with the awareness of the need to correct this reality.

This movement is ASIATODAY’s commitment to repay the people’s support for the past 17 years, and to fulfill its mission of achieving national development and public happiness as wells safeguarding freedom of the press.

People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker Choi Seung-jae, who led the formation of the Federation of Small Businesses and served as its first chairman, called Naver founder Lee Hae-jin a ‘hidden local business assassin’.

◇ Why is Naver founder Lee Hae-jin showing “heart” and “efforts” to Japan while ignoring Korea?

Lee Hae-jin travels by train in Japan. “I look at the advertisements and observe what passengers read and what smartphone services they use,” Lee said in an interview with Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. He said Naver’s messenger LINE is filled with “hearts” of the people who made it and the success of service is not only about technology, but also “efforts” of the people who made it.

ASIATODAY wondered. Lee cares about “hearts and efforts” of providers and suppliers but why is he so indifferent to the damage of the Korean people who have suffered from Naver’s search power?

We wonder what Japan means to him. The target market? A more comfortable place? Lee stays often in Japan. Lawmakers say Lee would often stay in Japan during the country’s parliamentary audits.

◇ ASIATODAY forms ‘Naver Japan Special Reporting Team”

In response, ASIATODAY has formed a ‘Naver Japan Special Reporting Team” aimed at covering and evaluating Naver’s Japanese business as well as activities of Lee Hae-jin and his family in Japan. The special reporting team will be consisted of ASIATODAY’s in-house sources in Japan, Japanese journalists, academics and business people. Director Ha Ma-joo, who will lead the team, completed his master’s and doctor’s degree at Waseda University and worked as an interpreter and guide for Korean companies’ training in Japanese companies for more than 200 times.

ASIATODAY would like to explain to the public again the reasons for its second ‘Make Naver Right’ movement since 2013.

Naver has established its own system called ‘News Partnership Evaluation Committee’ to evaluate media companies along with Daum. The standards and practices are unreasonable and may undermine the independence of the press.

◇ Naver blocks independence and growth of the press with its 4-level press grading system

The ‘News Partnership Evaluation Committee’ evaluated and graded the media in four stages – non-partnership, news search partners, news stand partners, and news contents partners. Such system made the media a ‘resident’ of internet portals, mainly Naver. The development of the press is decided in relation to Naver, which infringes the freedom of the press. Naver, which is neither a media company nor a public press committee, has ‘the power to rule over the press’.

In addition, Naver’s in-link system allows users to view the news in Naver’s own news section when they click on an article of a media company that has signed a ‘news content partnership’ with Naver. This is in contrast to Google’s out-link system, which links to the website of the relevant press when users click on news search results.

◇ Naver should abolish evaluating system and provide news search results in out-link format through open and fair algorithm

Naver’s in-link system has made the public think that news is free. Amid decreasing number of newspaper readers, such environment virtually blocks attraction of online paid subscribers.

The New York Times (NYT), a leading American daily with over 9 million paid online subscribers, says it aims to attract 15 million subscribers within five years. Such success is difficult in the Naver regime system.

“It is absurd that portals, not media outlets, supply most of the news and influence public opinion,” said Democratic Party’s Rep. Kim Jong-min. “South Korea’s democracy is collapsing.”

According to Kim, 69 percent of domestic news consumption channels are portals and only 5 percent of consumption is being made through media websites and webs, and due to this, the news credibility has dropped to 30 percent. He pointed out that this phenomenon, in which the people reads the same news at the same time, is like North Korea, where people reads the Rodong Sinmun.

Kim is actively in favor of abolition of the four-level media evaluation system by portals and providing out-links to news research results through a fair and open algorithm. He is making moves to enact related laws.

◇ ASIATODAY will do its best to repay the people’s support, develop the nation, protect the happiness of the people, and protect the freedom of the press

It is such a hard thing to say what is right against internet titan Naver through the “Make Naver Right” movement. But we will never back down.

As it was 9 years ago, your interest and support completes the significance of this struggle. We are waiting for information and reports related to difficult and unfair work caused by Naver and founder Lee Hae-jin. We express our gratitude to the people who have shown their support for ASIATODAY for the past 17 years.

From. Entire employees of ASIATODAY

Oct. 13, 2022

#ASIATODAY #Make Naver Right