Internet giant Naver, which is struggling to catch up in mobile businesses on its home turf, said Wednesday that it would push to secure its footing in the realm.

“As many already know, and some statistics show, the Web portal Naver is not the leader in mobile services,” said Han Seong-sook, the general director of Naver’s service departments, at a press meeting in Seoul on Tuesday, admitting the company is currently facing immense difficulties due to the fast-changing business environment. 

She said such difficulties stemmed from the breakdown of boundaries between different industries including Web search, online shopping and social networking, citing the rising presence of Amazon in the global online shopping industry thanks to its Web- and mobile-friendly business models.

In order to counter such adversity in the mobile sector, she said, the company would first beef up the firm’s mobile shopping businesses.

The mobile shopping business plays a core role in attracting users as around 34 percent of search keywords on Naver’s mobile app had to do with mobile shopping last year.

For starters, Korea’s largest Web portal Naver has burnished its search algorithms to provide a better shopping experience for users.

With the new search services, mobile shoppers looking for the best deals via their smartphones will now be able to see shopping information including related brands, hot deals and experts’ reviews of products. The mobile app will also present what is called the “Shopping Trend Graph,” to show the latest trends.

The Korean firm, which also operates mobile messenger Line, has integrated the new mobile payment system Naver Pay, similar to the payment service Line Pay, available in global markets including Japan, into its shopping platform.

With several taps on a smartphone, shoppers can pay for their purchases and transfer money via Naver Pay.

Aiming to help small online and brick-and-mortar sellers to better promote their products and services, Naver has also streamlined the process of establishing and managing a webpage.

“From search through payment Naver will offer users a seamless mobile shopping experience,” Han said.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)