Naver to bolster urban digital mapping business

Naver, a tech company best known for its namesake internet portal, is pivoting towards urban-scale digital infrastructure business, pulling together resources for a huge smart city project in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabian government officials and Chae Seon-ju, left, president of communications & social responsibility at Naver, sign a memorandum of understanding last month to collaborate for the NEOM city project. [NAVER]

Naver, a tech company best known for its namesake internet portal, is pivoting towards urban-scale digital infrastructure business, pulling together resources for a huge smart city project in Saudi Arabia.

The Seongnam, Gyeonggi-based company signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia’s Housing Ministry last month to help with the digitalization of city management using cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital twin technologies.

The agreement came as the company tries to widen its footing in digital services catering to corporate and government clients, a break from more consumer-oriented offerings like the portal and its instant messenger.

Spearheading the push is a subsidiary called Naver Cloud, which offers cloud-based technologies and services from storage to big data analytics.

To scale up its cloud-related business, some of Naver’s units have been merged to Naver Cloud since last year.

“Naver’s divisions in charge of operating the Clova AI service, Papago AI translation and Whale web browser moved to Naver Cloud,” a spokesperson at Naver said, adding that employees at WorksMobile, an organizational tool provider, will be transferred to the cloud unit soon.

The reorganization could help widen the user base, according to Nam Hyo-ji, an analyst at SK Securities.

“Naver put together fragmented AI and business-to-business units into Naver Cloud,” the analyst said, “The change will allow for better access to external corporate clients instead of being primarily used for Naver’s own services.”

Naver and its subsidiaries will work together to create a digital representation of the physical smart city.

Naver Labs, a subsidiary responsible for mapping and object recognition technologies, specializes in producing 3-D maps of buildings or even cities based on its experience leading virtual map projects in Seoul and Tokyo.

Three dimensional mapping of Seoul [NAVER]

In the S-Map project with the Seoul city government, the company took 17 days to complete photographing and 70 days to process 25,463 images, or 30 terabytes of data.

Naver has yet to detail how it will use the technology for the NEOM project, but a detailed archive of the city landscape can be used in different ways, for example, traffic control systems for drones and cars, real estate analysis and natural disaster prevention systems by simulating flooding and other natural disasters.

Enabling such mega-scale projects are self-driving robots designed to photograph roads and buildings.

The lab has focused on reducing the weight of the robots to increase mobility.

“The robots needed to be lighter than industrial bots and should be easily controlled on cloud computing system,” the company explained in a statement.

“In this regards, Naver Labs avoided using a high-performing graphics processing unit (GPU) and light detection and ranging (Lidar) system that tend to be heavy. Instead, we designed it in a way that can be controlled on a 5G-based cloud, which makes the robots lighter and less expensive,” it said.

Its M2 robot can drive autonomously and is capable of adjusting its height depending on the image subject, while the T-series robots can be used in the form of a backpack so a person can carry it and scan places like elevators and stairs.

Variants of those robots are roaming about at Naver’s headquarters in Gyeonggi where they deliver coffee or conduct photo-taking for 3-D mapping data collection.

Naver has taken groups of Saudi Arabia’s government officials to the building last year and this year to give them a glimpse into how its system works.

Saudi Arabia has high expectations for the partnership.

“We are relentlessly focused on enhancing the quality of life for citizens of Saudi Arabia by transforming our cities and municipalities with smart and efficient services. This partnership with NAVER is a crucial step, and one of many to come, in achieving this ambition,” said Ali Rajhi, a former deputy minister of municipal, rural affairs and housing on his Linkedin account. He was among the officials who visited the Naver building last year.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]