[Exclusive] Naver Targets Global Expansion With Saudi Map App, Shedding ‘Domestic-Only’ Label

Naver to Compete With Google Maps in Saudi Arabia

First Overseas Map App to Launch This Month

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Naver Corp. will launch a map app in Saudi Arabia this month, marking the first time a South Korean portal company has rolled out a map service in another country.

According to industry officials on October 2, Naver will start a pilot service for the map app in Saudi Arabia this month. After operating it for two months, the company plans a formal launch in December. The move marks Naver’s entry into the global map-services market, where Google Maps has effectively held a monopoly for more than 20 years, starting with Saudi Arabia.

Naver plans to use a wide range of features in the app to target Saudi Arabia’s business-to-consumer market. Its strategy is to build a super app that integrates navigation, reservations, payments and discounts on top of location information for restaurants, stores and other venues. Naver aims to export the model to other countries, including the United Arab Emirates, and establish itself as an essential daily-life platform in the Middle East.

Saudi Map App to Debut This Month, With Goal of Becoming a Daily App for Locals

Reservations and Payments to Be Built Into Map Service, Setting It Apart From Google’s Slower Data Updates

The “domestic-only” label has long been a concern for Naver. The brand value it built through search and shopping faded overseas. Chairman Lee Hae-jin told management that “every day is a crisis” and called for a survival strategy. His view was that the company had to find answers abroad. Naver saw an opportunity in Saudi Arabia, which embarked on a large-scale IT infrastructure development push in 2022.

◇ Expanding From B2B to B2C

Naver first gained traction in Saudi Arabia through the business-to-business market. The turning point came in November 2022, when it visited the country as part of the One Team Korea order-support delegation, which included the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and South Korean companies. Later, when a delegation led by Majed Al Hogail, Saudi Arabia’s minister of municipal, rural affairs and housing, visited Naver’s second headquarters, 1784, the company demonstrated its digital twin, robotics, artificial intelligence and cloud technologies and began discussing cooperation.

In 2023, Naver signed memorandums of understanding with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing and Ministry of Investment for a national digital transformation project. That same year, it won a contract to build cloud-based digital twins for five cities: Riyadh, Mecca, Medina, Jeddah and Dammam.

In August 2026, the Saudi government adopted Naver’s technology as a national standard. The Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing is also pursuing a plan to replace the Google Maps-based system used in its public administration platform, Balady, with high-precision map data built by Naver. As trust in the company grew, Naver prepared its next step: entering Saudi Arabia’s consumer market, as Google and other U.S. big tech companies have done, and delivering results there.

The first product of that push is Naver Map, which will begin pilot service in Saudi Arabia this month. Naver plans to apply the same super-app strategy it uses in South Korea, combining maps with reservations and payments. That means users will be able to go beyond directions and place searches to book restaurants, make payments, apply discounts and buy tickets. To support that effort, Naver partnered last month with Wddk, a local restaurant search and reservation platform. Wddk is a Saudi hospitality platform specializing in 24-hour real-time restaurant reservations and waitlist management.

◇ Looking to Expand to Other Middle Eastern Countries

Naver is confident it can succeed in Saudi Arabia. Google, which dominates map services in many countries, does not treat Saudi Arabia as a strategic market and has been slow to update local road and building information. Google Maps is also weaker in linking to local administrative and daily-life services. Naver’s strategy is to exploit that gap in the Saudi map market.

A Naver official said the know-how the company built through its map service in South Korea should translate well to Saudi Arabia. The goal, the official added, is to become a must-have daily app for the country’s roughly 35.3 million people.

In particular, Naver is expected to be able to implement indoor maps by applying the digital twin and cloud technologies it has already built in three major Saudi cities through government contracts. Given Saudi Arabia’s hot desert climate, the company sees opportunities in venues such as shopping malls.

Naver has also drawn up plans to expand its map service by applying the Saudi model to other countries. On September 29, it said it would work with Meta Platforms Inc. to introduce Naver Map-based voice services on Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta AI glasses. It is also reviewing plans to introduce that service overseas, including in Saudi Arabia.

Yoo Ji-hee, Korea Economic Daily reporter keephee@hankyung.com

Jeong Ji-eun, Korea Economic Daily reporter jeong@hankyung.com