Korean Search Engine Ranking and Market Share

By Bill Hartzer · Updated 27 October 2026

Naver leads on the Korean measure, Google on the international one

On the domestic measure South Koreans rely on, Naver is the leading search engine in South Korea, with 62.86% of searches in 2025, ahead of Google at 29.55%, per InternetTrend's annual average as reported by Hankyung Business on 4 January 2026. On StatCounter Global Stats, the international tracker, Google is narrowly first for September 2026, at 47.97% against Naver's 43.06%.

That disagreement is the central fact about Korean search. Korea is the one large democratic market where a domestic engine outranks Google on the measure its own media use, and the two leading measures do not agree on which engine is first. Both are honestly produced. They count different things, and this page gives both, with dates, rather than choosing one.

Below Naver and Google the order is settled. Bing is third on both measures. Daum, the second-largest Korean engine for most of the 2000s, is now fourth on InternetTrend and lower on StatCounter. Kakao sold it to the AI company Upstage in May 2026.

The Korean search engine ranking, on both measures

South Korea search engine ranking: InternetTrend 2025 average and StatCounter September 2026
Rank	InternetTrend, 2025 average	StatCounter, September 2026, all platforms
1	Naver 62.86%	Google 47.97%
2	Google 29.55%	Naver 43.06%
3	Bing 3.12%	Bing 4.83%
4	Daum 2.94%	Yandex 1.72% (likely artefact)
5	Others, each under 1%	CocCoc 1.15% (likely artefact)
6	none listed	Daum 0.73%

InternetTrend is a Korean web-log panel that measures search queries, including searches that begin and end inside Naver. It is the figure Korean media cite. StatCounter counts referrals, meaning visits that arrive at websites carrying its tracking code after a click on a results page.

That difference is decisive in Korea. Naver answers a very large share of its queries with its own content, from Naver Blog, Naver Cafe, the Knowledge iN question-and-answer service and its AI Briefing summaries. A search answered inside naver.com sends no referral to an outside site, so a referral counter cannot see it. StatCounter therefore undercounts the behavior that defines Naver. A Russian engine (Yandex) and a Vietnamese one (CocCoc) at one to two percent of Korean search are not credible as Korean usage either, and point to tracker noise in the panel.

The dispute is old. A 2018 European Commission decision records StatCounter data for 2016 in which Google held 66% of Korean PC search to Naver's 24%, and 71% to 27% on mobile. The same decision records Google's own claim that StatCounter data for Korea are unreliable.

How the ranking has changed

Naver, Daum and Google in Korean search, by date and measure
Date	Naver	Daum	Google	Measure
March 2011	69.8%	20%	not reported	Korean Click
December 2013	74.4%	20%	2.8%	Nielsen Korean Click, PC queries
July 2024	55.58%	3.40%	36.24%	InternetTrend, monthly average
2024 average	58.14%	3.72%	not stated in source	InternetTrend
2025 average	62.86%	2.94%	29.55%	InternetTrend
March 2026	63.8%	not stated	28.7%	InternetTrend, via The Korea Times

The table shows three movements. Google rose from 2.8% of Korean PC queries in December 2013 to about a third of searches on the domestic measure by 2025, driven by mobile: Android phones, Chrome and YouTube. Because the methods differ across those years, the change is best described in those terms rather than as a single number.

Daum collapsed. It held about 20% in 2011 and 2013. In July 2024, InternetTrend recorded Bing at 3.55% against Daum's 3.40%, the month Bing passed Daum, as reported by NewsSpace on 12 August 2024. Daum was fourth in 2025.

Naver recovered. After falling to 55.58% in July 2024, it gained about five points over 2025, from a 58.14% average in 2024 to 62.86%, its first annual average above 60% since 2022. 2025 was also the year Naver rolled out AI Briefing. The timing is clear; the cause is not proven by share data alone.

Why Google did not take over Korean search

Naver launched on 2 June 1999 as the first Korean web service to develop its own search engine, and it runs its own crawler, Yeti. Its lasting advantage came from content rather than crawling. In 1999 there was little Korean-language material on the open web to index, so Naver built it: Knowledge iN, a community question-and-answer service, launched in 2002, followed by Naver Blog and Naver Cafe. For a large class of Korean queries the best answer lives inside Naver because Naver's users wrote it there.

Around search sits a portal: mail, news, maps, shopping and payments. Its results page, organized since August 2000 into typed blocks by content category, still looks more like a portal than like Google's list of links.

The same design draws the main criticism. A walled garden that returns its own content first is a handicap for every site outside it. It also connects directly to the one major regulatory case against Naver.

Naver's commercial position is visible in its filings rather than in disputed panels. NAVER Corporation's 2Q 2026 earnings fact sheet records advertising revenue of KRW 1,447.2 billion for that quarter and KRW 5,436.2 billion across 2025. The line combines search and display advertising, so it is not a search-only figure.

The regulator record: the Naver Shopping case

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) is Korea's competition authority. Its leading search case concerns Naver's treatment of its own shopping service, a practice known as self-preferencing (an engine ranking its own products above rivals').

6 October 2020. The KFTC fined Naver, which it described to the OECD as "the number one search engine in Korea", KRW 26.6 billion because Naver "secretly manipulated its search algorithms in the comparison shopping search results". The KFTC said Naver's share in the open market increased significantly afterwards. Press reports give the fine as KRW 26.7 billion; the KFTC's OECD submission says 26.6 billion.
14 December 2022. The Seoul High Court upheld the KFTC decision.
16 October 2025. The Supreme Court quashed the High Court ruling and sent the case back for reconsideration (case 2023du32709), as reported by Digital Policy Alert.

The finding is therefore not final. The KFTC's account to the OECD dates from May 2023, before the Supreme Court's reversal, and should not be quoted as a settled outcome. The result of the remanded case had not been confirmed as of October 2026.

On Google, the KFTC fined the company in 2021 over Android terms, but the amount and date were not re-verified for this page. No Korean ruling on search defaults comparable to Russia's 2015 Android case or Japan's 2025 order against Google was found.

Daum's sale, and AI in Korean search

Daum was founded in 1995 and merged with Kakao in 2014. In January 2014 Daum was also negotiating to supply its search engine to Nate, the SK Communications portal. Kakao spun Daum off as AXZ on 1 December 2025, and Upstage announced completion of its acquisition on 7 May 2026. AXZ was renamed Daum Corporation in July 2026. Upstage has said it will combine Daum's search engine and database with its own Solar language model.

Koreans have also taken to AI assistants faster than most audiences. The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026 found South Korea highest of the countries surveyed for weekly use of AI chatbots for news, at 14%, a seven-point rise in a year. Eight percent of Korean respondents said they always or often click through from a chatbot answer to the original source, against 1% in the United Kingdom.

This page was checked on 27 October 2026. StatCounter figures are for September 2026; InternetTrend figures carry their own dates. StatCounter's South Korea table can be re-checked at source, but read it alongside the domestic figures.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most popular search engine in South Korea?

Naver, on the Korean domestic measure. InternetTrend's 2025 average gave Naver 62.86% of searches and Google 29.55%, as reported by Hankyung Business in January 2026. StatCounter, which counts only clicks out to other websites, put Google narrowly ahead for September 2026 at 47.97% against Naver's 43.06%. The gap exists because many Naver searches are answered inside Naver and never produce a referral.

What is the Korean search engine ranking?

On InternetTrend's 2025 average, the ranking is Naver 62.86%, Google 29.55%, Bing 3.12% and Daum 2.94%, with others under 1% each. On StatCounter for September 2026 it is Google 47.97%, Naver 43.06%, Bing 4.83% and Daum 0.73%, with small Yandex and CocCoc readings that are likely tracker artefacts. Quote the source and date with any ranking.

What is South Korea's search engine market share?

It depends on the measure. InternetTrend, the Korean standard, gave Naver 62.86% and Google 29.55% for 2025, and Naver 63.8% to Google's 28.7% for March 2026. StatCounter gave Google 47.97% and Naver 43.06% for September 2026. Referral counters undercount Naver because it keeps users on its own pages, so neither figure should be quoted alone or averaged with the other.

Is Daum still a search engine?

Yes. Daum still runs its own search engine, but its share has fallen from about 20% in 2011 and 2013 to 2.94% in 2025 on InternetTrend. Bing passed it in July 2024. Kakao spun Daum off as AXZ in December 2025, Upstage completed its acquisition on 7 May 2026, and the company was renamed Daum Corporation in July 2026.

Why is Google not dominant in Korea?

Mainly because Naver built the Korean-language content that the early open web lacked. Knowledge iN, launched in 2002, and Naver's blog and cafe services gave Naver answers no outside crawler could find, inside a portal with mail, news, maps and shopping. Google has still grown, from 2.8% of PC queries in December 2013 to about 30% on InternetTrend in 2025.

Did Naver lose the Naver Shopping case?

Not finally. The Korea Fair Trade Commission fined Naver KRW 26.6 billion in October 2020 for manipulating its comparison shopping search results, and the Seoul High Court upheld that in December 2022. On 16 October 2025 the Supreme Court quashed the High Court ruling and remanded the case. The outcome of the remand had not been confirmed as of October 2026.

Korean search engine ranking and market share