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“Foreign Users Can Now Check Real-Time Reviews in Multiple Languages on NAVER Maps”

NAVER Maps Introduces English, Chinese, and Japanese Translations for Place Reviews, Boosting Multilingual Map Enhancement

- Synergy between NAVER’s rich reviews and Papago’s translation technology … Place filters for convenient location exploration also support translation

- NAVER Maps, the only domestic service supporting four languages, continues to enhance multilingual versions … strengthening its position as an “essential service for domestic travel” with a 26.4% increase in foreign users compared to the previous year

October 2, 2024

As NAVER Maps expands its multilingual (English, Chinese, Japanese) support to include Korean review information and place filters, foreign users are expected to experience a smoother journey in Korea, enabling access to the same level of location information as Korean users.

NAVER announced on October 2 that it will support multilingual translation for visitor reviews and place filters to make exploring locations on NAVER Maps more convenient for foreign users. The multilingual service is provided according to the smartphone OS language settings or the language settings within the NAVER Maps app. NAVER Maps is the only domestic map service that supports four languages: Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese.

Utilizing the translation technology of “Papago,” Korea’s leading AI translation service, it supports the translation of “text reviews” containing detailed experiences of users who have visited various places. As Papago has steadily advanced its machine translation technology based on unrivaled Korean language processing technology and user feedback, foreign users can now check more accurate and natural translations of reviews.

NAVER Maps has secured the largest database of location information in Korea, centered around *Smart Place and MY Place (review platform), making it particularly useful for foreign users exploring places to visit. As NAVER Maps has the biggest number of monthly active users (MAU) among domestic map services, local business owners actively participate in promoting their stores, allowing users to check the most up-to-date and accurate information. While multilingual translation has been supported for business names, addresses, category of business, and detailed page information, this update expands the translation support to include user reviews. As such, foreign users are expected to access local information in greater depth by fully referencing reviews registered in Korean.

* As of September, over 2.55 million businesses registered on Smart Place

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In addition, to help foreign users easily discover restaurants that match their preferences without prior knowledge, NAVER has expanded its multilingual translation support for “place filters” in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Using place filters, users can sort restaurants not only in terms of operating hours but also by cuisine, such as Korean, Western, or Japanese. This is set to meet diverse needs, from users wanting to experience Korean food to those craving flavors from their home countries. Ultimately, NAVER’s distinctive feature is providing various “keyword review filters” based on the characteristics of stores accumulated through keyword reviews. Users can explore stores by selecting filters such as “special menu,” “good atmosphere,” “solo dining,” and “photo-worthy,” making it easy to find dining spots that match their travel goals. Place filter translation is currently supported for the restaurant category, which has high demand from foreign users, and will be expanded to other categories in the future.

Since introducing the multilingual version of NAVER Maps in 2018, NAVER has consistently advanced its service to make it convenient for foreign users to utilize the map service. This year, the multilingual support range was expanded to include business hours, tabs (home, reviews, photos, information, etc.), and convenience facilities and services (takeout, reservations, pet-friendly, group availability, etc.) information on place detail pages. The “keyword review” result graph, which provides a view of a store’s characteristics at a glance, is now supported in multiple languages as well. As a result, the number of foreign NAVER Maps users is steadily increasing, with the monthly average of daily active users (DAU) using NAVER Maps in foreign languages rising by about 26.4% as of September compared to the previous year.

Choi Seunglak, the Leader of NAVER Place Product Devision, said, “NAVER Maps is establishing itself as an essential service for domestic travel for foreign users with its usability that allows for exploring places to visit and moving to destinations in a single app.” He added, “By providing multilingual support for “place filters” that improve efficient location searches and “visitor reviews” that are essential to check before visiting a place, we now offer foreign users a comprehensive set of necessary information in the process of exploring places. We plan to continue advancing our service by closely examining the needs of foreign users to provide a more satisfying service.”​