The program started at 8:20 today and our first visit was to Naver. Naver is pretty much known as the Google of Korea. We had a presentation about Naver and its many technologies like V Live (which is live video streaming), Line (which is a messenger platform), Naver Pay, Naver TV, the smart speaker WAVE and Friends, Papago (a convenient translator), and several other technologies like automatically enhancing out background noise in videos and automatically only focusing on one person in a large video using facial recognition and position. These newer technologies were cool to learn about because it seemed so new since American companies haven’t really implemented these into our daily lives. Koreans here use, for example, the “automatically focused on one person videos” because there’s a kpop fanbase and a lot of people just want to watch their favorite kpop star so using this technology has become wide spread in Korea. 

Naver is very specific to Korea and the search engine platform along with all its other technologies is trying to be available in as many aspects of one’s daily life. They’re trying to be omnipresent and the Korean government isn’t liking that too much because it gives too much power to Naver over the people’s security and information. It will be interesting to learn about how they will expand to other countries since their product is very niche and is thriving on Google’s weaknesses like lack of local knowledge in Korea. 

We took a tour of Naver and the building is as nice as Apple headquarters or Google headquarters, but with a Korean twist. The entire building, also named as “the Green Factory” is just one whole smart system. There was beautifully designed public library on the first floor with modern wooden shelves, lots of plants, and high ceilings. The blinds are automated so that it will regulate the sunlight in a smart way so as to save energy but it has tiny holes in them so they don’t completely block you out from the outside world. The elevators are like those in Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning; you have to press the button outside of the elevator and it will direct you which elevator to get one. This is basically to increase efficiency and save energy. The stairs are designed to motivate you to exercise. There’s a gym with a personal trainer, a massager, a cafe, a post office, a health center, a shower, a resting place, a service desk, a convenient store, a small to-go market, and a cafeteria (which is really inexpensive.. a meal is about a dollar or two). The employees usually work 9-5pm which is becoming the new shift from working long hours. But overall, Naver and the Green Factory was super impressive. 

After Naver, all the girls went out for lunch, thanks to Dr. Yun again, and I ate some bibimbap which was actually really good today. A few of us walked around in Insa-dong for street shopping, and then we went to One Million Dance Studio in Gangnam. That was a dream come true haha. And then we walked around Gangam, got probably the best bubble tea I’ve ever had from Tiger Sugar (I got a brown sugar boba milk-tea). Then to Myeong-dong for some more street food and light shopping!