DAUM updates news search defaults prioritizing content partners

[Courtesy of DAUM]

DAUM, the portal site operated by Kakao Corporation, has implemented a significant change in its news search setting, shifting the default for news search results from ‘All Media’ to ‘Content Partner (CP)’ sources.

According to Kakao on Thursday, DAUM announced and executed changes in its news search settings, effective from November 23, which aims to default search results to CP sources. This marks a revamp of the news search feature introduced earlier this year on May 24, distinguishing between the media as a whole and CP sources, with CP articles now taking precedence in search results after six months.

DAUM said that the consumption of CP articles exceeded all press sources by 22 percent, which is becoming a growing trend. The portal site also revealed that the proportion of users clicking on ‘See DAUM News’ was 95.6 percent, much higher compared to ‘See All News’ and indicating substantial demand for maintaining CP settings among users. Users can still adjust the setting to display results from all press sources when conducting news searches.

But smaller internet press agencies are voicing their opposition to this policy change.

In a related move in August 2023, Naver introduced a separate search option to view articles specifically from ‘Mobile Main Press’ and ‘PC Main Press’ but the default news search results on Naver remain set to display articles from all press sources. Naver clarified that there are no current plans to alter this default setting.

Meanwhile, Kakao reported that Kakao’s founder and head of its management reform committee, Brian Kim, met with Kim So-young, the head of Kakao’s compliance and credibility committee, on Thursday where they discussed Kakao’s compliance-oriented management direction to facilitate the company’s reform. Kakao aimed to convey its strong commitment to bolstering an independent compliance and legal management system before the compliance and credibility committee commences its active operations.