NAVER’s Project Flower Thrives as Its Fountain Fund Surpasses KRW 300 Billion to Support SMEs and Creators’ Sustainable
NAVER’s Project Flower Thrives as Its Fountain Fund Surpasses KRW 300 Billion to Support SMEs and Creators’ Sustainable
- Project Flower aims to discover SMEs and creators and support their success by providing advanced technologies and platforms on NAVER
- Supported by Fountain Fund, Project Flower has benefitted 460,000 Smart Stores, 2 million SMEs and creators from various fields
- Fountain Fund increased its positive impact by expanding benefits to social ventures and small nonprofits while fostering software professionals
2021-09-15
NAVER Corporation (KRX: 035420) is accelerating the sustainable growth of entrepreneurs, small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and creators through Project Flower, a company-wide social impact initiative backed by Fountain Fund, now valued at over KRW 300 billion (approximately USD 250 million).
■ Creating a ‘fountain effect’ continuously for 4 years
In 2016, NAVER launched Project Flower intending to inspire SMEs and creators to make brilliant products, services and content, in turn creating a fountain effect rippling across the society. Through Project Flower, NAVER provides a fertile ground for SMEs and creators to grow their customer bases online and offline, using NAVER’s platform and advanced technologies. This is also driving NAVER’s digital transformation as a technology platform.
“When we launched Project Flower, we hoped to nurture economic growth for the benefit of society,” said Han Seong-Sook, CEO of NAVER. “In the last four years, we’ve exceeded our expectations, as 460,000 Smart Stores, 2 million SMEs and creators from various fields have flourished from NAVER’s business know-how and cutting-edge technologies.”
Founded in 2017, NAVER’s Fountain Fund sustains Project Flower, growing as a financial resource for SMEs and creators with each passing year. When the fund started, it generated KRW 60.9 billion in its first year. As of 2021, Project Flower is expected to invest more than KRW 90 billion this year alone, reaching a cumulative KRW 360 billion in just four years. NAVER announced at NAVER CONNECT 2020 that the company will invest KRW 180 billion over two years in SMEs and creators through Project Flower.
■ Providing business education — both online and offline
Thanks to the growing Fountain Fund, NAVER established and operates Partner Square, an educational space for SMEs, with six locations in South Korea. During the pandemic, Partner Square brought its offline education sessions online to make remote learning more accessible. Its courses have attracted more than 300,000 visits over eight years and 2.3 million views online per year, accelerating SMEs’ digital transformation.
Now, the offline educational component of Partner Square is expanding and evolving into the online NAVER Business School, which will offer the world’s best data-based coursework and curriculum for digital businesses.
■ Helping new businesses grow faster with quick-start tools
Fountain Fund enables first-time business owners to get up to speed through various quick-start programs. NAVER Smart Store sellers can use ‘Start Zero Commission Fee Program’ for a year to allow them to grow faster. As of August 2021, the program has provided commission fee support for 137,000 sellers with a total of KRW 32.5 billion in funds.
Additionally, NAVER Smart Store sellers can receive ‘Growth Support Points’ when achieving certain growth milestones. These points can be used in online advertising and marketing on NAVER platform. As of August 2021, the program has supported 105,000 transactions with a total of KRW 24.3 billion in funds.
Through the fund, NAVER is expanding the scope of its ‘Start All-in-One Program’ for fledgling businesses. This also includes Smart Order Fee exemption and Biz Consulting Point, a business advisory program with verified labor, finance and accounting ‘NAVER eXperts.’
Fountain Fund also supports NAVER’s various incentive programs to promote creators and influencers on NAVER’s User Generated Content (UGC) ecosystem, including Blog, Band, and Knowledge iN and maximizes their profit to create a stable environment.
■ Expanding to encompass nonprofits, social ventures, and IT talents
NAVER also creates social impact through Happybean, an online donation platform for philanthropic projects where SMEs and creators can become self-reliant and independent. As its first initiative, Happybean started ‘Social Venture X Project Flower’ to support social ventures in need of help with branding, marketing and shipping. Happybean aims to help 20 enterprises become self-reliant this year. It also is supporting nonprofit organizations with ‘Double Project’ where Happybean matches the amount donated.
Another conduit for social impact is NAVER Connect Foundation. It provides free educational platforms and software and AI courses for all ages, from preschoolers to adults. Examples include the ‘Entry’ software education platform, ‘Play with AI, Play with DATA’ campaign and ‘Juniver school’ education app for preschoolers.
Also, the nonprofit NAVER Cultural Foundation supports creators’ artistic and cultural activities. It has helped creators by expanding the base of online cultural content through ‘On Stage’ to unearth the next great musicians in various genres and ‘Open Podium’ to share humanities lectures with the public.
“The steady support we’ve provided through Project Flower and other programs over the past few years has generated billions in social value,” Han said. “We will continue to broaden the project’s scope and direction to amplify our ‘fountain effect’ even further.”
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