Day 6: Naver? Let’s Google it

The day six scheduled activity was a visit to the Naver Corporation headquarters named the Green Factory in Gyeonggi-do. Naver is South Korea’s search platform that operates across the country and is also present in Tokyo, Japan. It is basically Korea’s Google. Our group was given a presentation about an aspect of Naver’s video production software by one of their teams. We were introduced to some sort of smart system software that tracked and would only focus a camera on one person when performing among many people. It was super interesting to see how they were able to do this. After this presentation, Naver provided a tour of their headquarters. They showed us their library on the main floor consisting of over 16,000 books and bookshelves with plants on top to regulate the humidity in the building. They also showed us the many innovative engineering features of their buildings like automatic green blinds and cool stairs made of rocks and painted with trees. Naver was very persistent with giving their employees many benefits like having a gym with personal trainers, a convenience store with discounted prices, a doctor’s office with showers and nap pods, and a dining hall in the basement floor with discounted prices as well. Naver showed the ongoing trend of giving employees good work environments so they work better. When the Naver visit was over, our group hopped back on the bus and went back to Seoul. Calvin, John, Linus, Zack and I were craving some American food so we went to Burger King for lunch and got Whoppers, fries, and a coke. It was much needed. I was put into a food coma and fell asleep for a solid hour and a half until we went out. A few of us went to the Myeongdong and got authentic Korean street food like dumplings and chicken on a stick. After, we hiked up to the North Seoul tower and took in the scenic view of the entire city at night. It was truly incredible to look at! Us guys called it a night when we finished at the tower and headed back to the hotel, eager to visit the DMZ the next day.

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