Naver Leads Korea’s Search, but YouTube and AI Platforms Are Gaining Ground

Posted by By Dan Taylor 2 Min Read

Key Points:

  • Naver remains the most popular search platform in Korea, with YouTube and Google closely following.
  • Younger generations prefer platforms like YouTube and X (formerly Twitter), while older users stick to Naver and Daum.
  • AI tools like ChatGPT are gaining recognition, but adoption remains relatively low due to limited use cases.

In 2024, the search engine landscape in Korea is undergoing significant changes, with platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and AI tools such as ChatGPT becoming popular alternatives to traditional search engines.

According to the “Search Trends Report 2024” by Open Survey, Naver still holds the top spot as Korea’s leading portal, with 87% of users relying on it for their searches. However, YouTube is catching up quickly, with 79.9% of users favoring it, followed by Google at 65.8%.

David Lee from Open Survey notes, “The rise of multimedia platforms like YouTube has reshaped how Koreans search for information, offering more interactive and engaging content.”

Search habits in Korea vary across different age groups. Younger users (ages 10-20) prefer YouTube and X (formerly Twitter), while older users (ages 40-60) stick to platforms like Daum and Naver. For businesses, understanding these preferences is essential for creating effective marketing strategies. “Tailoring content to match the preferred platforms of each demographic is crucial,” the report highlights.

AI-based tools like ChatGPT are also starting to make an impact, although their use remains limited. While 80.8% of Koreans are aware of ChatGPT, only 34.5% have used it. Most non-users say they don’t find many situations where they need AI assistance. However, as AI technology continues to evolve, it’s expected that more users will adopt these tools in the future.

As digital habits shift in Korea, businesses and marketers need to stay flexible and adapt to new trends, ensuring they remain competitive in this rapidly changing market.

Dan Taylor
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Dan Taylor is the founder and editor of International Search Insights (ISI), the publication behind ReadIsi, and a Partner and Head of Innovation (Search & AI) at SALT.agency. He has worked in search for more than a decade, in-house and agency-side, and is regarded as one of the West’s leading voices on search engines beyond Google, including Yandex, Baidu, Naver and Cốc Cốc. On ReadIsi, Dan covers the engines and AI answer platforms that English-language coverage tends to miss: Baidu and ERNIE, Yandex and Alice AI, Naver, Cốc Cốc, Shenma, Sogou, WeChat and Weibo search, plus DeepSeek and Alibaba’s Qwen. He also keeps dated records of documented changes, such as the Yandex, Baidu and Naver algorithm update histories and the DeepSeek, ERNIE and Qwen model update histories. His approach is to take learnings from global search engines and apply logic with a high evidence threshold. A claim needs a source, patterns seen in one market are treated as a hypothesis until they are checked in another, and where the evidence is thin he says so. For brands, that means advice built on what can be shown, with measurement that separates being cited from being chosen. Dan is credited with coining the term “edge SEO” and won the inaugural TechSEO Boost research competition in 2018 for his work on CDN and edge changes for SEO. In 2026 he was credited with coining “Infinite Tail” to describe how keyword research is changing with AI search. He is the author of AI Search Marketing For The Travel Sector, writes for Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land and Travel Marketing Guy, and has advised technology, SaaS, travel and enterprise ecommerce brands, including Cloudflare, GitLab and Airbnb. He has given multiple talks and panels at the International Search Summit in Barcelona, and has also spoken at Optimization Moscow, brightonSEO, Google Search Central Live Deep Dive Asia in Bangkok, Athens SEO and the Asia SEO Virtual Summit 2026, where his talk looked at how Baidu, Naver, DeepSeek, Tencent, Cốc Cốc and Yandex built their own AI answers.
Founder & Editor