Naver head office located at Jungja-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam city

It was reported that Naver presented a proposal for "community development support" such as donating 5 percent of profit to Seongnam city and Seongnam City Council, when Naver purchased its head office space in Seongnam city.

However, it was revealed that Naver didn't fulfill its promises after completing its land purchase to build its head office building and Seongnam city didn't even look through it.

This case has sparked a fierce debate over special measures to eradicate large companies' unfair real estate speculation.


According to the data (photo above) obtained by Asia Today on August 18, Naver submitted "NHN Venture Tower Construction Plan" to Seongnam city and Seongnam City Council back in October 2004 to purchase Seongnam city-owned land. 

It was reported that Naver suggested an offer: the Seongnam city and the city council must accept a private contract of selling the site at appraised value to allow Naver proceed its plan. The city and the city council accepted the offer.

According to Naver's construction plan, it was going to build a venture integrated facility on the site, using 80-90 % for its own and giving out the rest to 4 or more firms such its partners or other excellent IT firms.

In addition, Naver presented the following rosy blueprints for community support: △recruiting Seongnam citizen at least 20-30 percent of total recruitment every year, △developing local community related items, △donating 5% of net profit for community and Seongnam city-focused investment, △community support to minimize traffic, and more.

At that time, the city and the city council believed such promises and apporved the common property management plan allowing Naver to purchase the city-owned land through a private contract.

When the common property management plan was approved by the city council, Naver shifted its position and failed to fulfill its promises.

Naver's original promise was donating 5% of annual net profit to Seongnam city-focused community, but it was transformed into national target business. It reduced the amount of donation by nearly 20% from the original plan.

In relation to this, an official from Seongnam city said, "I heard that Naver failed to meet almost every promise it made to purchase the site in Jungja-dong of Seongnam city. How could it do such thing? It is so lamentable."