Top Naver searches in Korea for 2019

Naver finally released their year end recap of popular search terms for 2019. Here's the list in English, broken down into a few subcategories and including some of my explanations.

The main list is disappointing because they just threw together the overall term popularity without filtering out the mundane daily queries. This is "good" because it shows what average people are actually searching for but it's also bad because it doesn't do a great job of showing what was popular this year in particular. You'd be better off checking the corresponding Google list for that. However the subcategory lists are mostly 2019-specific.

 Most popular Naver search terms in Korea for 2019





Overall most popular Naver searches 2019 (mobile search)


Most of these are obviously just simple queries to bring up instant one-box results (like the weather, maps, movie showtimes, etc) or else people just Navering popular websites instead of bookmarking them.

  1. 날씨 - weather
  2. 유튜브 - YouTube
  3. 구글 - Google
  4. 길찾기 - directions
  5. 다음 - Daum
    another Korean portal site
  6. 환율 - exchange rate
  7. 로또당첨번호조회 - winning lottery numbers
  8. 페이스북 - Facebook
  9. 로또 - lotto
  10. 미세먼지 - fine dust forecast
  11. 오늘날씨 - today's weather
  12. 전국날씨 - nationwide weather
  13. 오늘의운세 - today's fortune
    Chalk it up to cultural difference that Naver brings up onebox results for this and Google doesn't
  14. 설리 - Sulli
    Popular Korean actress and singer who committed suicide this year. It's telling that her name is one of the very few relevant terms that cracked through the list.
  15. 쿠팡 - Coupang
    Popular shopping website, similar to Amazon.
  16. 방탄소년단 - BTS
    Insanely popular (internationally and domestically) K-pop boy group
  17. 영화 - movies
  18. 네이트판 - Nate Pann
    Popular forums site, where netizens discuss all sorts of personal issues or big daily news, especially entertainment, social, and family issues. 
  19. 네이버부동산 - Naver Real Estate
    Site providing details on rentals, pricing, trends, etc for real estate related things
  20. 네이트 - Nate
    Another Korean portal site

Overall most popular Naver searches 2019 (PC / desktop search)


Again, mostly terms to generate instant onebox results, or links to other websites, especially banks. I've argued before that this habit is actually good: Navering your bank's website is a decent way to prevent typos that might bring you to phishing sites. It can also reduce instances where a user bookmarks their bank site but actually bookmarked a temporary session URL and then they complain when the bookmark doesn't work the next time (I'm looking at you, dad).

Based on the type of searches here, you can really see a stark difference between mobile searches (aspirational, fun, outdoorsy) versus desktop (mostly job searching, banking).

  1. 유튜브 - YouTube
  2. 다음 - Daum
  3. 구글 - Google
  4. 쿠팡 - Coupang
  5. 환율 - exchange rate
  6. 농협인터넷뱅킹 - Nonhyup internet banking
  7. 국민은행 - Kookmin Bank
  8. 페이스북 - Facebook
  9. 국세청홈텍스 - IRS Hometax
    Korean government tax filing website
  10. 날씨 - weather
  11. 사람인 - Saramin
    Job recruitment website
  12. 네이버지도 - Naver map
  13. 우리은행 - Woori Bank
  14. 국민은행인터넷뱅킹 = Kookmin internet banking
  15. op.gg
    Stats and forums portal for gamers, especially for PUBG, Overwatch, Fortnite, etc. 
  16. 맞춤법검사기 - spellchecker
    Searching "spellchecker" on Naver brings up a special onebox result that let's you paste in up to 500 words of text and it will quickly check the text for spelling and other common errors. Try it yourself: Search 맞춤법검사기 on Naver
  17. 파파고 - Papago
    Naver's online translation service, similar to Google Translate but generally better at Korean
  18. 길찾기 - directions
  19. 잡코리아 - Job Korea
    Job recruitment website
  20. 신한은행 - Shinhan Bank

Top 5 most popular Entertainer searches for 2019


  1. 설리 - Sulli
    Popular K-pop singer and model who tragically ended her own life this year after years of being in the spotlight and enduring netizens' hateful comments, mostly about her "attitude problems" and habit of going braless. Suffering from depression for a long time, her death was another big spotlight on problematic online comments, and really the catalyst that drove several major online portals to retool their comment policies.
  2. 방탄소년단 - BTS
    Hardly need to mention them.
  3. 구하라 - Goo Hara
    Popular K-pop entertainer who, just about a month after Sulli, also committed suicide. The two were close friends, and faced some of the same problems with cruel netizen comments. The fact that so many top rich and beautiful pop stars were killing themselves put a huge spotlight on issues of feminism and online behavior this year. I'm pretty surprised she wasn't featured on Google's year end search term list
  4. 정준영 - Jung Joon-young
    Singer who debuted in Superstar K season 4 but who is surely most famous now as one of the masterminds behind the "Burning Sun" nightclub scandal during which rampant prostitution, rape, and drug use were exposed among some of K-pop's shiniest stars. Plenty of articles out there about him and "Burning Sun-gate." This was one of the biggest stories early in the year and no doubt a big tinderbox of fuel to the #metoo movement.
  5. 황하나 - Hwang Hana
    An LA-born Korean actress (well, "actress") who is probably better known for being the former fiancee of the "Oktapbang Prince" himself, actor Park Yoochun and member of K-pop group JYJ. It was a wild year for this couple, as following Park's [ahem] "scandal" involving room salon bathrooms and bargirls, he was busted for drug use and brought to court this year. Not just him, but she too was busted for drug use and he even claimed her obsession with him included getting him to take drugs with her. She also played a role in the Burning Sun scandal. As far as I know they are broken up now but she has been spending time trying to capitalize on this fame/infamy to jumpstart her own career, or trying to ride the scandal train and her connections to be somebody, depending on yoru personal outlook. Netizens are generally unfavorable to her but that's par for the course I guess.

Top 5 most popular Sports searches for 2019


Most of these guys are easily Googleable for more info.

  1. 손흥민 - Son Heung-min
    English Premier League player (affectionately called "Sonny") and all around one of the best soccer stars out there today.
  2. 류현진 - Ryu Hyun-jin
    Baseball pitcher, currently with the Blue Jays but previously and maybe more famously with the LA Dodgers. Previously of the Korean team Hanwha Eagles. 
  3. 토트넘 - Tottenham Hotspur
    UK football club for which Son Heung-min plays.
  4. 이강인 - Lee Kang-in
    Another soccer player playing in the Euro league, currently with Valencia.
  5. 이승우 - Lee Seung-woo
    Another soccer player currently playing in Belgium. 

Top 5 most popular TV searches for 2019


  1. 동백꽃필무렵 - When the Camellia Blooms
    I've never heard of this, but I guess I'm not the target audience either. Here's the Google summary: An orphan who grew up to become a single mom meets and falls in love with a do-gooder police officer in their small town.
  2. 스카이캐슬 - SKY Castle
    Popular K-drama about teenagers, tutoring, teachers, and families. Right alongside the film "Parasite," SKY Castle (SKY = Seoul Univ., Korea Univ., Yonsei Univ.) was a piercing look at income and class issues, especially around corruption scandals of the wealthy who will pay or do anything to ensure kids get into good colleges. Really set the stage for the public to be outraged against Cho Kuk and even the New York Times got in on the issue.
  3. 그것이알고싶다 - "I Want to Know" 
    For some reason called "The Its Know" or "We Want To Know The Truth" in English. An investigative TV show that looks at politics, society, etc. This show is amazing mainly for the dramatic format and the way nearly any topic (take a look at the episode list for 2019) starts to feel like a mysterious conspiracy theory. Think Dateline meets Unsolved Mysteries. Some are highly topical and immediately relevant, while other episodes look back at past or general issues. Actually a very interesting show. 
  4. 호텔델루나 - Hotel Del Luna
    A very popular K-drama staring K-pop beauty (in voice and appearnce) I.U., and praised for its unique stories and characters. I don't watch it but apparently the "guests" at this hotel are ghosts, most of whom reveal sad and interesting stories about their deaths.
  5. 나혼자산다 - I Live Alone
    Extremely popular semi-reality show following the daily happenings of various celebrities who live alone

Top 5 most popular Movie searches for 2019


  1. 어벤져스엔드게임 - Avengers Endgame (foreign)
  2. 기생충 - Parasite (Korean drama/thriller)
  3. 극한직업 - Extreme Job (Korean comedy)
  4. 겨울왕국2 - Frozen 2 (foreign)
  5. 82년생김지영 Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982 (Korean drama)

You know these.

The last one is a film staring 정유미 and 공유 based on a book came out a few years back and documents a "typical" life and discriminatory pressure a woman of that age group would face as a kind of amalgamation of things many women face. I haven't seen it so I can't offer much. But it being released as a movie this year of course gave it a bigger and more mainstream audience of opinionated netizens with debate raging about just how feminist and how accurate it is.

The #2, Parasite, well, I've made my opinion clear about this movie:



I'll leave you with that.



And if you enjoyed this, you can find other top lists from this year, and past years, here:
🔗 10원 Tips: Year in Review

Comments