Naver, the search engine group often called “South Korea’s Google”, is pitching its cloud services to countries in the Middle East and south-east Asia as an alternative AI option to US and Chinese technology giants.
Kim Yuwon, chief executive of Naver Cloud, said the company could be a strong alternative for countries reluctant to use American or Chinese cloud systems out of security concerns. The South Korean group can tailor AI services to individual countries and allow them to maintain control over their data, he said.
“Tech giants in the US and China are targeting bigger markets with their generic AI models. They don’t have much room for customised services for each country,” Kim told the Financial Times.