Naver Corp. is looking to strengthen its international foothold after winning a contract to develop a digital twin platform in Saudi Arabia, a significant milestone in the South Korean internet platform’s plans to expand its overseas operations.

The company is actively pursuing international expansion through its group task force “Team Naver,” which was formed last year to drive future businesses in IT platforms such as cloud and artificial intelligence (AI), and the Saudi deal will likely play a pivotal role in this strategy.

Team Naver announced on Tuesday that it has secured a project to build a digital twin platform in five major cities across Saudi Arabia. The project, valued at $100 million in total, is expected to be instrumental in realizing Naver’s overseas expansion plans. Naver’s ESG and External Affairs Chief, Chae Seon-Ju, signed the contract with the Saudi housing authorities on October 23 during President Yoon Suk-yeol’s state visit to the kingdom.

Over the next five years, Naver will leverage its cutting-edge technologies, including AI, cloud computing, and robotics, to develop and operate a cloud-based digital twin platform. This marks the first time that a South Korean company will export an IT platform to the Middle East.

The Saudi Arabian government plans to use the digital twin platform for urban planning, monitoring, flood prediction, and other purposes. The platform is also expected to integrate various services in both the public and private sectors, such as autonomous mobility based on digital twin mapping and immersive content.

This project marks Naver’s first venture into the Middle East, with the company aiming to establish a local subsidiary in Saudi Arabia and set up a cloud region. This follows Naver’s memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Municipal and Affairs and Housing and the Ministry of Investment in March 2023 that focuses on national-level digital transformation projects.

“With this project, Naver will play a pivotal role in helping South Korean IT startups advance into the Middle East,” Chae said.

Naver currently operates local subsidiaries in Japan, the United States, France, Vietnam, Canada, Hong Kong, China, Germany, and India. Including places where it operates local offices, labs, and cloud regions, the company is present in 13 territories, excluding Saudi Arabia.

Naver has been expanding its business ecosystem through overseas mergers and acquisitions. Recently, it has been placing a stronger emphasis on IT platforms, particularly in cloud and AI, with Team Naver leading the way.

Naver aims to increase its overseas revenue share from 8.1 percent to 20 percent in the near future, and the company is also accelerating its cloud business by leveraging its large language model (LLM) technology based on generative AI.

By Song Kyung-eun and Minu Kim

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