NHN Corp. |
| Type | Public (KRX: 035420) |
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| Industry | Internet |
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| Founded | June 1999 |
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| Headquarters | NHN green factory, 178-1, Jeongja-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, SOUTH KOREA |
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| Key people | Kim Sang-Hun, CEO |
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| Products | Naver, Hangame |
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| Revenue |  2,147 billion KRW (2011) |
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| Operating income | 620 billion KRW (2011) |
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| Net income | 452 billion KRW (2011) |
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| Employees | 8,615 (2011) |
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| Website | www.nhncorp.com |
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NHN Corporation (KRX: 035420) is an Internet content service operator headquartered in Seongnam, South Korea and established in 1998. It operates the Naver portal, which is the most popular Internet portal and search engines in South Korea, and Hangame, the country's number one online game portal.[citation needed] It also has affiliates in Japan. It had the largest market capitalization of KOSDAQ-listed companies however was transferred to Kospi market on November 2008.
History
NHN was formed in September 2001 through the merger of Hangame Communications, Inc., an online gaming company, and Naver.com, a search engine company. Both had been formed a few years earlier, with Hangame coming into being in November 1998, and Naver in June 1999. Upon the merger, the name of the company was changed to "Next Human Network", or NHN, although the two divisions continue to operate under their original brand names.
Both Naver and Hangame had established Japanese affiliates in 2000, which continued to operate as separate entities until they too were merged in October 2003. In June 2004, NHN formed "Ourgame", a joint venture company in China with Sea Rainbow Holdings however sold the stake in October 2011. In July 2005, NHN USA was incorporated, which launched the ijji game portal site in May 2007 however sold the stake in December 2011.[1]
In 2008, NHN appeared on the Forbes Global 2000 list for the first time. [4] In 2009, Kim Sang-Hun of NHN and Jing-Wan Kim of Samsung were the only South Korean bosses to appear on Asia's Fab 50, which is a list of the top 50 "biggest, best bosses in Asia."[5]
In 2012, NHN announced that it planned to invest 1.5 billion South Korean won in 10 social media games.[6]
Services : Naver, Hangame, me2day
Naver
Naver, officially launced in 1999, was the first Korean portal site to develop its own search engine and has been leading the Korean internet industry with its search services. Naver plays a leading role in the dissemination of knowledge over the internet, the most equitable medium in the world.
Based on its innovative and accurate search service, Naver, Korea’s largest search portal website, provides community services, including Blogs and Cafes, as well as a variety of convenient services, such as News, Knowledge Shopping, Maps, Books, E-mail and Naver Tool Bar. Naver also offers new top-quality culture contents every day through its ‘Naver Cast’ service. [2]
Hangame
Hangame, Korea's largest online game portal, features a varety of games for everyone, leading the spread of online games. Hangame is also reaching out to customers worldwide through aggressive global expansion strategies.
Hangame, which launched its service in December 1999, is Korea’s first online game portal and provides users with gaming enjoyment by offering more than 300 games in various genres, ranging from web-board to MMORPG, FPS, sports games and serious games.
Hangame also offers over 100 flash game and casual game services, where users can play games without having to sign-in.[3]
me2day
me2day is a micro-blog service where users can enter 150 letters to share information on their daily life with friends and families. The 150 letter ‘small talk’ breaks the barrier between the Internet and mobile environment and is helping me2day solidify a position as the next-generation network service leader.
me2day is a totally new platform that connects the Internet and mobile environments. Users can enter their thoughts into me2day using their mobile phone at any time, and that message is sent to their friend as a texted message. Users can share their thoughts with a large number of people without having to send multiple text messages.[4]
See also
- Naver
- Knowledge Search
- Hangame
- Hangame Japan - a Japanese online game portal.[5]
- Naver Japan - a Japanese search portal.[6]
- Livedoor - a Japanese blog service, now owned by NHN.[7]
References
External links
Main
Brands
