This was a pretty informative take from US web developer Stephen Revere in an interview with Korea Times. With such high technological prowess, why do so many Korean websites seem outdated and, for lack of a better word, useless?
For the last couple 0f decades, Naver has been the leading online information source for Koreans. But Revere explains that, unlike Google, Naver isn’t primarily a search engine — it is a vast digital ecosystem that seeks to corral every search into another aspect of its massive repository of content, primarily user generated. In addition to its question-and-answer platform KnowledgeiN, there are Naver Blogs, Naver Cafes, Naver Videos, Naver Shopping, Naver Encyclopedia, Naver Travel and Naver Sports among others.
Naver’s inward-looking digital environment has its advantages. Content on Naver is closely monitored, significantly reducing dead links and error pages. But this system has inadvertently led to a gap in web development skills among Korean businesses, Revere explains.
“Naver’s dominance has disincentivized Korean businesses from investing in world-class websites, and Korean website developers tend to not learn cutting-edge technologies because there’s little client demand,” he said. “A website in Korea doesn’t have to be good. Its mere existence establishes just enough credibility, and that’s primarily what Korean businesses are looking for from their website. It’s not a sales tool, because no one will find their website from a non-branded search on Naver anyway.”
Taking Korean companies to the top of online search engines - The Korea Times
Interestingly, pasting that blockquote made me notice that the "of" up there in the first line is somehow a zero instead of the letter O. Although visually similar, I'm at a loss to figure out how the heck that happened in the first place. Would anyone accidentally type a zero instead of an O? I guess they are indeed near each other on a keyboard so it's possible. Weird that autocorrect wouldn't take care of that.
Anyway, I think his take is 100% correct.
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| Naver goggles up shopping. Image: ETNews |
He got me thinking about my own interactions with Korean websites. The only times I ever really try to access a company's website is when I somehow can't find their contact information, location, or hours on Naver.
And although many Americans use Amazon, I can still think of various small/medium websites I use in USA to make purchases from. In Korea? I don't think I've ever used a specific company or product's website to make a purchase. It's literally either Coupang, or if the item isn't there, a Naver SmartStore. You might replace Coupang with another shopping site, but even then, I would wager the vast majority of Koreans are making purchases, even from sites like Ably or Temu, from dedicated mobile apps. Perhaps part of that is the legacy of the difficulty of paying online on a desktop PC relative to the convenience of apps. Just imagine you have a great product to sell in Korea, and you made it available only via your website. Even if you accepted Naver Pay, Kakao Pay, bank transfer, Apple Pay, anything else under the sun, I highly doubt you'd get many customers.
Even for official announcements and news, most company websites are nearly useless. Updated content is few and far between. For most company or products I want to keep tabs on, I follow their official Naver Blog. That's true for both private companies and public organizations. The fact that Naver Blog still supports RSS is something I'm thankful for every day and I'm secretly glad Naver Post basically failed. (Naver Post was their Google+ styled product, which while much simpler than a full fledged blog platform did not support RSS).
The user generated content is also a massive reason to stay inside Naver. We all know that some random guy's Naver Blog will be a massively better resource for research than any official website. I think a lot about how many USA users find it second nature to add "site:reddit.com" to their Google queries just because they want that personal touch. But the Naver Blog ecosystem has even wider reaching personal recommendations and documented experiences.
So overall, this insight is informative and interesting. Koreans don't need nice, user friendly, updated websites. It would be a waste of talent and resources. Better to invest in areas where potential customers are most likely to wind up.
The whole article is interesting so click through for some other insights.
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