South Korea’s online portal giants Naver and Kakao are set to enter the devices market, following a path similar to Google that went into the mobile device and speaker markets.
The two companies will launch their first hardware products within this year, according to industry sources.
Naver plans to release an artificial intelligence embedded speaker, named the WAVE, this summer. In a joint project with its Japanese affiliate LINE Corp., the speaker will be operated by CLOud Virtual Assistant or Clova in short, an AI system developed by the company.
Clova, similar to Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, recognizes speech, responds to users’ questions and is capable of describing expressions on the five senses. The device will be manufactured by a partner company. Naver has not disclosed its manufacturing partner yet.
The company also plans to unveil AI-based self-driving technologies and an infotainment platform for auto connectivity.
Naver holds level three autonomous car technology -- the first IT firm to do so. In March, it unveiled a prototype of an in-vehicle infotainment platform that offers Naver map and navigation services through a voice assistant program.
Meanwhile, Kakao also plans to launch an AI speaker that operates the company’s core services including music, news reports and a voice-assisted online-search service.
By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)