[Exclusive] Naver Expands Globally With Saudi Map App, Shedding Domestic-Only Label

Naver to compete with Google Maps in Saudi Arabia

First overseas map app service to begin this month

This article was published on Hankyung Premium 9, the paid investment information platform of The Korea Economic Daily, at 2:01 p.m. on October 2, 2026. Subscribers to Hankyung Premium 9 can read more exclusive stories in real time.

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

According to industry officials on October 2, Naver will begin a pilot of the 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, starting with Saudi Arabia, into the global mapping market that Google Maps has effectively dominated for more than 20 years.

Naver's strategy is to use a wide range of features in the map app to break into Saudi Arabia's business-to-consumer market. The company plans to pursue a super-app strategy that integrates place information for restaurants and shops with navigation, reservations, payments and discounts. 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

Reservation and payment services to be built into maps, differentiating it from Google's slower updates

The "domestic-only" label has long been a concern for Naver. The brand value it built through search and e-commerce in South Korea faded overseas. Chairman Lee Hae-jin told management that "every day is a crisis" and urged them to come up with a survival strategy. He believed the answer had to come from overseas. Naver then saw an opportunity in Saudi Arabia, which launched a large-scale IT infrastructure development project in 2022.

◇ Expanding from B2B to B2C

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

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 initiative. 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 ultra-precise map data built by Naver. As trust in the company grew, Naver prepared its next step: entering Saudi Arabia's B2C market, as Google and other US big tech companies have done.

That effort has produced 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 reservation and payment services. Users will be able to make restaurant reservations, complete payments, receive discounts and buy tickets, in addition to using navigation and place search. To support that push, Naver partnered last month with Wddk, a Saudi platform for restaurant search and reservations. Wddk specializes in 24-hour real-time restaurant booking and waitlist management.

◇ Eyeing other Middle East countries

Naver is confident it can succeed in Saudi Arabia. The company believes Google, which dominates mapping services in many countries, does not view Saudi Arabia as a strategic market and does not update local road and building information quickly enough. Google Maps is also weak in linking with local administrative and daily-life services. Naver aims to use those conditions strategically to target the Saudi mapping market.

A Naver official said the know-how the company built through its map service in South Korea should work well in Saudi Arabia. The goal is to become an essential daily-use app for Saudi Arabia's population of about 35.3 million, the official added.

Naver could also offer features such as indoor maps by applying the digital twin and cloud technology it has already built in three major Saudi cities under government contracts. Given Saudi Arabia's hot desert climate, the company believes the service could be competitive in places such as shopping malls.

Naver has also drawn up plans to expand its map service by transplanting 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 for the Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta AI glasses. It is also reviewing plans to roll out that service in overseas markets including Saudi Arabia.

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

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