네이버의 글로벌 확장: 라인, 야후, 그리고 한일 관계

라인의 보안 사고에 대한 일본 정부의 우려는 지배구조 문제를 지적하며 네이버의 지분에도 영향을 미칠 가능성이 있습니다.

### 라인과 야후 합병에 대한 논란: 일본의 우려와 네이버의 이해관계
* 🇯🇵  일본 방위 관계자가 **한국인의 일본 정보 접근과 국가 안보에 미치는 영향**에 대해 우려를 제기했습니다.
* 📈  라인과 야후의 합병으로 지배구조와 보안 사고에 대한 의문이 제기되면서 **일본 정부는 네이버의 지분과 경영 시스템에 대한 조사**를 진행하고 있습니다.
* 🔒  보안 문제와 한국인의 정보 접근에 대한 잠재적 영향에 대한 일본 내부의 우려로 인해 **라인의 데이터 거버넌스 및 저장소에 대한 면밀한 조사**가 진행되었습니다.
* 💰  네이버의 **라인 지분, 합병 동기, 일본 시장에 대한 영향력, 검색 엔진 지배력**과 **수익성**에 미치는 영향 등이 조사 대상에 올랐습니다.
* 📱  라인과 야후가 일본에서 차지하는 **중요한 위치**와 이들이 제공하는 **광범위한 서비스**는 이들의 통제력과 영향력에 대한 우려를 불러일으키며 지속적인 논란의 원인이 되고 있습니다.

### 네이버의 라인 매각 가능성과 글로벌 영향력
* 💼  네이버는 **라인을 비롯해 청구서, 원격 진료, 금융 데이터** 등 다양한 서비스를 제공하고 있어 **데이터 통합과 보안에 대한 우려**가 커지고 있습니다.
* 📊  라인의 매각 가능성은 **네이버의 글로벌 확장 로드맵과 재무 성과**에 미치는 영향, 그리고 **동남아시아 및 그 외 지역에서의 서비스**에 미치는 영향에 대한 의문을 불러일으킵니다.
* 🌐  네이버가 **일본, 태국, 대만을 넘어 글로벌 시장**으로 확장하기 위한 노력과 **글로벌 정치 상황의 영향**이 사업 통합과 라인의 매각 가능성을 결정하게 된 배경입니다.
* 🤝  한일 대립과 안보 사건은 상황을 평가할 때 **국가 고유의 측면과 균형 잡힌 시각**을 고려하는 것이 중요하다는 점을 강조합니다.

In Japan, a defense official said one of the things he said was, What if Korea has all the conversation information about Japanese people? Basically, if you go to the essence, the United States sees China, and Japan sees Korea. It's like having Line and Yahoo 50-50. You might misunderstand that SoftBank is friendly to Naver, with about 65, and Naver has 35. Overall, they only have about 1% of the shares. In Japan, they made a law called the Economic Security Act before 2022. So, when you do something new, you really need to get permission. This atmosphere is now being read, and we might be thinking, Should we delete it? Hello, this is TTimes reporter Hong Jae. Hello, this is Byline Network Shim Jae-seok. Yes, hello, I'm Outstanding reporter Hong Seon-pyo. Articles about Line keep coming out non-stop. It's not just a corporate issue now, but it's spreading almost to a national issue.

There is a situation that is quite prolonged right now, so it's a bit difficult to find the first article. So, why is it worsening to this extent? It would be good to look back from the beginning. After the merger of Line and Yahoo, they seemed to be operating well as Line Yahoo. Why did something suddenly happen? Why did the Japanese government suddenly say to sell or not sell? In short, there was a security incident at Line. In the process of the Japanese government pointing out that the response to this security incident was inadequate, they questioned the fundamental cause of the security incident, suggesting that there might be a problem with the governance structure of a certain company. Ultimately, the issue lies with the governance structure. Line's parent company is A Holdings, and Naver owns 50% of A Holdings. However, Line is now in charge of operating the IT system at Naver.

It's like entrusting someone, which may sound funny to say that A is the superior and B is the follower, but if we express it in terms of autumn, A is the line and B is IT supplier. From the perspective of the IT supplier, Naver is like B. However, B needs to be controlled properly. B is my owner, so isn't it that I couldn't control it? So, if this situation continues like this, it seems that you won't be able to control it continuously. So, change the delivery structure, change it to a delivery structure. It wasn't explicitly stated like this, but it was expressed metaphorically as a review of the management system. So, isn't this review of the management system essentially about reducing Naver's stake? Understanding it in this way, but on the other hand, isn't it about making us more responsible for what we have? The interpretation can vary. So, I think this incident is...

A very important security issue has arisen, and in fact, it seems that Naver is at fault. However, I understand that this incident is unrelated to security issues. Essentially, this is not just a technical issue but a political issue that cannot be separated. I searched extensively for the true intentions of Japan, but there isn't much information available. I found only one thing that reflects their true intentions through some anonymous interviews on Nippon TV. Regarding this, one of Japan's defense officials said, If Korea takes the line's user information, the system will eventually collapse. It's not being used right now, but according to that person's expression, what if a situation like Ukraine occurs? The situation in Ukraine refers to war. If Korea goes to war, the Japanese people...

In Korea, there are people who view it as having all conversations information of Korea, and what would we do with it. A defense official mentioned that. Another thing, now, according to an anonymous government official, Korea could analyze Japanese conversations and if Japan says something slightly like Dokdo belongs to Korea, they could set the agenda. By continuously spreading such implicit messages, they could infect the mental world of Japanese people. It seems like the Japanese government is thinking about this internally. Therefore, in the end, the line should be drawn between Japan and Korea. Is it not a problem for Naver, Habibi, or something like that? So, fundamentally, it's like the U.S. sees China as Japan sees Korea. It's a very important message. Yes, like the U.S. sees China.

Japan is watching Korea. It's dangerous and somewhat unreliable, right? So, this is a fundamental issue. They clearly mishandled information. They did mention it, but when you look at the articles, some point out that Naver did not respond properly. However, in our country, even when there was a buzz about Kakao's data center before, Naver received praise. They have their own data center, and Naver is a company that does well in such areas. They have an established image. In Japan, have they actually been working like this? LINE was established in 2011, as you mentioned earlier. And since then, have they been operating effectively? As the CEO just mentioned, they are a Korean company, right? They have been viewed in this way to some extent.

Due to various reasons, I noticed that among Japanese politicians, some do not use LINE much. When I see them, I think if they use LINE, the information will go to Korea, so there might have been a label attached to them as Korean companies. Therefore, it is clear that the Japanese media and government look at it more sensitively. However, looking at the situation over the past year, it is true that the administrative map in March and April was affected by the information leakage incident that occurred last year, with about 500,000 cases leaked. In fact, if we look back at the history, the issue started from around 2000 and continued until 2021. The Japanese government somewhat criticized LINE, saying that your data security system seems a bit inadequate. When that happened, LINE, yes, LINE, was under scrutiny.

I am in charge of the legal affairs department. However, Chinese employees were discussing this. It is about a Chinese company. There have been incidents where Japanese users have accessed the government without permission. They even took away some personal information like phone numbers. However, Line has always been a company that the Japanese government has been interested in, whether in a good or bad way. At that time, based on the opinions of a certain professor at the University of Tokyo or a lawyer, a special committee was established within the company. With this special committee, they worked on data governance diligently. So, the committee conducted an investigation, and the results were somewhat sensitive to Japanese people. This was because Line had previously stated that all data was stored in Japan.

I talked about it, but when I actually saw what the special committee investigated, it seems that the text data is indeed stored on Japanese servers, but as for photos, photo images, videos, PDFs, etc., I'm not sure if all or some of those are stored there. Some of those physical assets were on servers in Korea. In fact, if we think about it, sharing content in text can be very sensitive information, but the truth is that images, photos, or PDF files may contain even more critical information. In the past, even in Korea, there were many articles pointing out about officials, including politicians, exchanging highly important documents via KakaoTalk. Of course, even though Kakao has a majority of Korean shareholders, at that time, the special committee pointed this out.

It was said, and now the Japanese government, political circles, and some right-leaning media outlets are talking a lot about the fact that LINE lied. They said they would bring all the data to Japan, and now they have worked hard and already transferred everything. It's already done, it's all over there, so when you see this, in a way, there have been some incidents, which is why we have come this far. I don't know if the Japanese government and political circles really tried to build up by trying to take over LINE's rights. But there were actually such issues, and in fact, there was an issue last October. In fact, some leaks happened a lot last year, but almost everything was outsourced.

The company was indeed leaked information, but they are very focused on that side. Our line has been hit too hard now. When the Japanese government looked at it, there was a case of nuclear incidents. Naver Cloud, you know, Naver Cloud has subcontractors, and one of the subcontractors' employees had a laptop computer that got infected. Naver Cloud was breached because of that, and when Naver Cloud was breached, the same authentication system that the line uses was also breached. So, I think there is a bit of awareness of the problem from that. Like the CEO mentioned earlier, Line is the major shareholder themselves, and in the case of Japan, they have a direct relationship, so they should fix it right away. They should push it a bit more. In fact, in a way, if the Japanese government does that.

If they had intentions, you can also see it as having some justification this time. In a way, it has been noticeable since before. Yes, yes. Although I'm not sure if they actually built up to it, just by catching the loose ends, something could have happened. That trail has been caught twice now. It was caught twice, and now, it seems that Korean people have certain emotions towards Japan, and it seems that Japanese people also have some emotions towards Koreans. So, I think that also had a big impact. Earlier, as the CEO mentioned, what I heard was that when I met with Japanese business people for coverage before, especially those in the IT industry, as the CEO said, they seem to be quite cautious about Korea. That's what I felt back in 2019.

There was some trade friction with Japan, right? At that time, I went to Tokyo for a business trip, and during the conversation, they were a bit concerned that if we export materials from Korea, they might flow into North Korea. That's why the Japanese government is acting this way, a bit cautiously. The person I met in the upper ranks in Tokyo is always very vigilant in terms of national security. I think he always has a clear sense of alertness in terms of national security. I have been rushing, so I think things are urgent now. Even in the Blue House in Korea, they are making announcements like there is no sale. It seems like things are moving urgently now. How far has the situation progressed? You just mentioned that there has been no announcement of selling the A-line in the Blue House. This was reported like that, but in fact, there has been no such announcement.

The precise comment from the Blue House is roughly as follows: We will not force Naver to be sold against their will. That's the gist of it. Yes, so they will not sell it. It's a different story for the pharmacists. If Naver wants it, they will support the sale. That's the feeling, a bit different. And now, you mentioned at the board of directors meeting, originally, in this board, there are Korean and Japanese members. This is our perspective, not based on nationality in operating the company. Originally, it was 50-50, with some from Naver and some from Sobaek, going back and forth. So, there were Naver's directors and Sobaek's directors. Therefore, the board was operated equally by the directors. But this time, one from Naver and one from Sobaek left. Oh, one from Sobaek left too. Yes, so now, Shin Joong-ho from Naver...

Now, it's about the careful representative, the representative CPO is gone, and one person has left. So, one person is gone from both sides. So now there were two people each, so one person is left. The current person is from Naver, the person who used to be the representative of the existing line, from the Naver side, it's said that the person who used to be the representative of Yahoo in the past. So now, among the executives of Line, there are those who are from Naver, and the rest are social directors. Now, there are people who think whether the Naver Line representative really represents Naver. The person came out as a representative and sent a message saying that the relationship with Naver is over. Therefore, many people think that the Line representative is closer to Naver now. In that sense, many people wonder if the current Line representative is really from Naver.

I don't know. It should be said that Line is now Yahoo from Naver. Naver's side is gradually decreasing. Can I see it this way? Then, in the case of A Holdings, the society is divided into 3 to 2. Softbank has 3, and Naver has 2. However, now, the subsidiary companies below, Nine and Line, were originally centered on Softbank. So, when Naver integrated 50% of Softbank's stake, it was excluded from the connected subsidiary. So, from the time the stake was divided 50-50, in fact, Naver started to take over. So, Naver is now more like an investment company of the parent company of Line and Yahoo. So, before Line and Yahoo merged, what was Naver's dominance like back then? It was absolute at that time. I, in November 2019, at that time.

We both said we understand management, right? At that time, Naver had a 73.1% stake in LINE, which means they could pretty much do whatever they wanted with the company. Of course, it was also listed on the Japanese stock market and the US stock market, but it was almost like they had absolute control. It was a 100% subsidiary, but when it went public, it reduced to about 25%. At that time, I was on Naver's side, but as Shinsegae integrated it, the stake decreased significantly. Yes, Shinsegae bought all the shares in the market through the integration, so they delisted it and divided the whole into a 50-50 split. Yes. Actually, one thing I want to point out is that if you don't look at it a bit more accurately, you might misunderstand that Naver and LINE have a 50-50 ownership. In fact, if you calculate Naver's stake arithmetically, it is around...

32.5% 아요. 그, 아, 그렇죠. A 홀딩스가 한 대충 65% 갖고 있는데, 그걸 둘이 둘이 50대 50이 32.5% 아아. 그 나머지 여기, 그 35% 누가 갖고 있냐? 근데 지금 라인 야오는 일본에 그 상장돼 있었잖아요. 그래, 제가 어저께 좀 주유 주주들이 누군지 궁금하더라고요. 궁금해서 찾아봤더니, 일단은 캐나다 연기금이 4.3% 갖고 있고, 나머지 30%. 근데 다 보니까 노무라 자산운용, 매니지먼트 S 매니지먼트. 그 자산 운용사 있죠. 그리고 노무라가 운영하는 펀드 대부분. 다른 그다음에, 이제 그런 일본계 기

SoftBank would be much more friendly, so in fact, in terms of SoftBank's friendliness, Naver is 35, and that's why, as our CEO mentioned earlier, Line's management naturally seems to be leaning towards this side a bit. They are strongly requesting an increase in the share price. But in fact, this is not necessarily a matter of national controversy, but even from a capitalist perspective, it is natural for those who have a 65% stake to lean towards this society. However, in terms of overall domination, Naver only holds about 1%. It is necessary to accurately grasp this first before discussing such matters. Normally, it is said to be 50-50, so just think of it as half and half. For example, A Holdings' 50-50, so A Holdings has Line, and Line has Yahoo.

It's not 100% owned, right? That's right. So, because of this, even though it's supposed to have a 50-50 share, it actually decreases by a third, which means a decrease of 33%. In practical terms, it's about 35% of control, even though it's a bit less. The influence of figures like the chairman is overwhelming, so even now, if we continue to analyze the stake, in fact, influence, the influence of one person on another, is present. This is also somewhat seen in Japan, even in the news. Mr. Shin Jooho, the CEO, earns as much as the CEO of a large company in a year. So, thinking about it, it's not really a Korean thing; it becomes like this. Right. Then, looking back, ultimately, the well-grown line, through the merger, while merging, would have known the current structure. Although it was said to be 50-50, practically knowing it's not half.

It must have been there. Then why did they merge? I used to do a podcast before YouTube was doing well. I listened to that podcast again. At that time, the topic was about a 50-50 merger, and when they announced the merger, there was a podcast where they discussed it. The conclusion back then was, I just don't understand why they are doing this. I can understand why Yahoo or SoftBank would behave like that 100%. Because at that time, Yahoo Japan had a portal and was the number one portal in Japan, but it couldn't gain any traction on mobile. For example, like Daum and Naver before Kakao, although Daum was the second portal after Naver, it had no influence on mobile before meeting Kakao. So, Daum Kakao...

So, Kakao has now acquired Daum, which had its own portal. But ultimately, Kakao didn't gain much from it. It just went public. Yes, from Daum's perspective, they entered a new market, the mobile market. However, Kakao didn't gain much. Acquiring a portal doesn't make much sense, and the importance of search is decreasing. If we look at examples like this, even Naver didn't gain much. It's really hard to understand why they did it back then. But they made various attempts. The most notable attempt was integrating fintech. Yes, at that time, the Japanese government was promoting cashless transactions. Japan still heavily uses cash and doesn't rely much on credit cards. They mainly use cash. In contrast, in China, everything can be done with just a mobile phone. China is really leading the world in that aspect.

Tech companies are becoming faster, and it's a time that was somewhat envied. At that time, both Japan and Korea said we should go cashless and move to mobile. So, who dominates the mobile platform became a crucial issue. Yahoo, Facebook, and Line were the two major players in the market, spending a huge amount of money to win over the market. They kept fighting and spending money on marketing, leaving each other with only wounds. From Naver's perspective, Line's success globally was great at that time. Shareholders always criticized Naver, saying, Your operating profit is decreasing because of Line.

It was a challenging time, or should I say, it was such a time. And one more thing, now, well, this is my somewhat speculative analysis. Among Naver's dreams on the ground, one of them was to dominate the Japanese search market. They tried to enter it before, several times, but failed. We have been talking about CEO Shin Joong-ho, but he, along with Naver, went to conquer the Japanese market. They didn't go there for Line at first, but to dominate the Japanese search market. Naver acquired a search specialist company called Cheilmoon and appointed CEO Shin Joong-ho to lead their entry into the Japanese market. Even when they were acquiring Cheilmoon, in the industry, they said they were not trying to save the company, but to save the people, including CEO Shin Joong-ho.

Many influential people in Line have left. In any case, as a result, Naver is now failing to continue searching in Japan. Meanwhile, Line accidentally broke. I think Naver might consider not having a search engine in mind. However, in the Japanese search market, it's like 7 to 3 or 8 to 2, with about 70% dominated by Google and the remaining 30% by Yahoo. But Yahoo's search engine is Google's. Therefore, more than 95% now return to Google's search engine. So, if Naver were to replace Yahoo's search in Japan, although it's just a part of the search market, I think they dreamt of entering that market. If Naver didn't have such a goal, why would they do that? I think they wanted to try eating a piece of the search market that they had never been able to touch.

When the story is missing, I don't really know why they acquired it. There are many conspiracy theories, including political ones. However, at that time, it was indeed difficult in terms of profitability. Because of Line, yes, yes, at that time, Line had a future but was not profitable, while Yahoo was making good money but had no future. And the future where Yahoo will make a lot of money through Line is uncertain because at that time, in fact, Line had to refer to Kakao as a reference in Korea. Kakao started making money when the business board model exploded. In Kakao's chat window, there are quite a few ads. This is the business board advertisement, which had a much bigger impact than expected, transforming Kakao from a company with no profitability to one with great profitability.

거거든요, 근데 네이버와 라인, 그 라인과 야후가 그 거래를 할 때는 비즈보드가 이제 막 세상에 등장해서 수익성이 완전 좋다. 이게 검증되지 않은 시기였어요. 그러니까, 이 라인이 미래에 엄청 비저광고 하나만 붙이면 돈 엄청 벌 수 있는 거야라는 걸 아직 모를 때란 거죠. 미래가 있다고 보기에는 그게 확실한 미래는 아니었다. 확실한 미래였다면 안 팔겠죠. 아, 근데 그 50대 50이라는 것도 좀 되, 이게 신기하긴 했었거든요. 이게 과연 공평한 목소리를 낸다는 게 회사에서 가능한 건가. 근데 뭐, 지나고 봤을 때는 안 되는 거죠. 그게 그래서 그

There was something like this, but now, in fact, this may not be true. When you go in that direction, it doesn't really make sense in your mind. So, what that means is that the decision was actually made by President Shin Jo-ho. At that time, it was widely known that President Shin Jo-ho made the final decision. Yes, there was such a contract, but now, it seems that they have completely clashed. The fact that there was no clash, where the truth ends and where the lie begins, I'm also talking about something I don't know well. Yes, because it's an internal matter of the company. Yes, there are things that are known, but we cannot know for sure if it was documented or what was done. However, in the industry, it is known like that. And in the case of Line right now, in Japan, if they are so cautious to that extent, it means that they have tremendous power in Japan. This applies not only to Line Messenger but also to others.

There are a lot of services that come with it. I heard that Line holds a significant position in Japan. First of all, I think it's widely used. It has about 96 million MAU in Japan, so except for the elderly, almost everyone uses it, I think. And in any case, Yahoo Japan is a major portal, in my opinion, it could be considered a company that combines KakaoTalk and Naver in Korea. So, if you think about the services that both companies are providing, it might be interesting to think that Line and Yahoo are doing them all. I wrote down some information earlier. There were about 100 subsidiaries and I think there were over 30 affiliates. In fact, if I mention a few representative services, there are Line Government, which is somewhat like a public institution.

If institutions use such services, they can now send invoices, pay taxes, and send disaster messages. In the case of our country, there is something like Government 24, which is relatively well-established. However, in Japan, it was a very analog society, especially in the face of the COVID-19 situation, this became very evident. Through services like Corona Sugu, similar to the Line Government, local governments use it more than the central government. Many people are using it, and in our country, remote medical treatment is gradually being allowed on a limited or temporary basis. In Japan, remote medical treatment is very active, such as through a brand called Line Doctor.

In the medical field, it deals with the most sensitive information. There are things like that, and also it merged with Facebook, and Line Pay naturally has it, and Line Financial has it. Because it has a lot of services, yes. And now, Naver, it's almost the same as Line, from what I've seen. Line Square, Line Business, they also have those kinds of things. They have a wide range of services, so I feel like they are providing services. It can't help but be sensitive. Really, data, the data in Japan, is all related to that. Local data, health data, then payment fintech data, financial data, investment, and enterprise. It's all related to Line. So, last time, in China, last year, as you explained at the beginning of 2021.

There was an issue with China, right? Some developers from Line in China, so the developers in China, could access Line's personal government. This became a big issue in Japan. Yes, yes. At that time, the government instructed local governments not to use important infrastructure in Line. So, that's what's in Line. If we leave it as it is, there could be a sense of crisis that all data in our country will be integrated into Line. Right. But now, Line's dominance is huge, right? From Naver's perspective, there are many things done through Line to enter Japan, like Line's collapse and such. There are also some core services, right? In fact, from what I've seen, you don't need to worry too much about Line's collapse in terms of the ownership structure.

Line Yahoo holds a 28.7% stake, and the rest is now related to Naver's webtoon, which is preparing for listing in the United States. They have over 70% of that part, and most of it is held by Naver. You don't have to worry much about that. There are several services like Line Manga, and Line Works is a subsidiary of Naver Cloud. So, Line Works is not really related to Japan's Line. Therefore, it can be considered safe in terms of the dominant structure that Naver has used the Line brand to enter Japan. However, Line's self-made services in Japan are all dependent on Line.

When it comes to companies in Thailand and Taiwan, all companies like Naver, Line Works, and Line Manga are owned by Naver. If they were to reorganize their shareholding relationships, if Naver, Line, and Yahoo were to reorganize their shareholding relationships, what services will remain now, what will disappear? You can just think that Line Works will remain and Line-related services will mostly be transferred. As you mentioned earlier, around 100 or so, from games to music, they will all be transferred. However, as you mentioned earlier, Line is doing well even in Taiwan and especially in Thailand, and it is widely used in places like Indonesia. Indonesia doesn't have that much influence, compared to Taiwan and Thailand, it is quite significant in terms of population.

Write down, the population is close to around 200 million, but actually, 6 to 7 million are using it. In fact, places like Taiwan and Thailand are doing very well. If the roof relationship is organized as you mentioned now, will everything fly away, or will Naver be able to have some control? In the first place, as you mentioned earlier, in Taiwan, Line Plus is actually overseeing most of Line's overseas business in Japan. Line Plus is a Korean corporation. Oh, but Line Plus owns 100% of Line Taiwan, Line Vietnam, Line America, and so on. Therefore, Line Friends is also 100% owned by Line.

Due to this, of course, if you go beyond that, this side naturally follows. But also, I saw today, and now I looked at my article, and it seems like they called the Line section at Yonhap News to confirm. They are doing this like this, like this, like this. Is there a possibility that Line Plus will go to Naver? But of course, in Line Baseball, they say there is no such thing as a single victory. They say there isn't, but a few days ago, the Line Plus employees seemed a bit uneasy about employment. As the company comes and goes like this, even if the reporter goes, it will be online, but if you come out directly, there will be absolutely no job insecurity, and you will continue to go like this. He said something like this. Yes, I don't know if they can do that to increase their bargaining power, but basically, from the standpoint of Line Baseball, that's the case.

There is no reason to hand over Line Plus. Even if someone like me, a SoftBank executive, or a senior or a reporter, were to ask for it, they would naturally not want to hand it over. In fact, SoftBank also wants to expand overseas and wants to distance themselves a bit, so I think it's right to see that a lot of the foundation is disappearing. Yes, Line Plus is a Korean entity, it is in Korea now. It is a Korean entity, and most of the employees, about 1,900, are Koreans. The CEO is also Korean, and there are more Korean people on the board of directors. However, ultimately, it is decided by the shares. But since Line has 100% ownership, if Line's management rights go this way, it can only follow. Yes, that's why this discussion came up.

Revise the Korean text:
개인정보보호법이 한국지구조를 바꿔라는 얘기 나오니, 그러니까 이제 일각에서는 야, 그럼 일본은 너네가 갔더라도 동남아시아, 태국, 대만 이런 거는 그 네이버 다 개사 때 한 건데, 그 이거는 그냥 네이버에 넘겨라 의견이 욕심인 약간 욕심 같은 얘기가 나오는데 아까 어떻게 뚫었는데. 그 근데 이제 사실 소프트뱅크 입장에서는 미쳤어 이런 얘기가 나오죠. 예를 들어 이렇게 되면 우리 그 강남에서도 굉장히 잘 팔렸던 라인의 캐릭터들이 뭐 이런 것들도 다 넘어가는 거네요. 그게 이제 이제 제일 이슈 중에 하나가 그 회사

You have it, right? Naver, right? So, if you have 50, and then add 30 here, it will be around 70, isn't it Naver's, right? This is how it works. So, what happens if this goes through? What happens then? This is how the conversation goes. Moreover, that company is in Korea, and Korean people are developing it. This will generate huge profits, right? Japanese people like those characters. Anyway, these companies are becoming a bit vague. What will happen? Will it just pass by, or what will happen? Here, there is a crucial point now. Recently, Chairman Shim Jae-seok posted on Facebook that Naver does not want to sell Line. He said, No, we don't want to. He regrets it. He received a lot of responses to the post. In this way, Naver is not censoring Facebook.

I don't think so. But why is that? Why does Naver... This is not based on any 100% evidence. The result of my analysis of Huemint is my own judgment. However, it's not Naver's official position. Naver's official position is to keep all possibilities open and discuss. So, it's not like they won't sell, but they are negotiating with the sale in mind. Naver is in negotiations with the sale in mind. This is Naver's official position. Due to the aggregation of my Huemint information, I can't say this is 100% accurate. Why did you come to think that way? First of all, there is Huemint. Personally, when I have been covering Naver for a long time, it seems like the company dislikes regulations the most in the world. So, for example,

When we were talking about Kakao Bank for a long time, they said that you should come into the internet bank through Naver. It's a bit awkward if only Kakao comes in on the Gyeongbu Expressway, right? We need to compete with Naver as well. From the government's perspective, it's a sensitive issue. Naver didn't come in. The reason is one - they didn't enter the regulated industry. When there was a fuss about blockchain, Naver didn't do it. Rather, they do it through their LINE in other countries, but not in Korea. Why? Because when there are many regulations on coins in Korea, they don't like regulations. However, in Japan, before 2022, they enacted a law called the Economic Security Guarantee Promotion Act. In there, they emphasize the importance of economic stability. It includes various contents related to our semiconductors and material supply. Among them, there is a point about ensuring stable supply of key infrastructure. What is key infrastructure? It includes city gas and other things.

It's like electricity, right? There is also communication equipment there, and there is talk of lines going in there. It's not exactly decided yet, so most people naturally think that lines will go in. Then, when the government does anything new, you really have to get permission. That's one of the things that Naver hates the most. This kind of atmosphere has been getting stronger now after the conflict between the U.S. and China, and all countries are now prioritizing national interests. I can feel that kind of atmosphere, wondering if Naver might be removed. This is just my personal guess. For example, if Naver is removed from Line, how will it affect Naver's performance? However, in order to see the significant impact, we need to first see how much they sell and how much they will sell.

It seems like SoftBank is also living life. Of course, just taking one week at a time. But, one more thing to mention. Currently, nominally, SoftBank is the largest shareholder. Because SoftBank has about 45% and about 43%, and the remaining 7% is held by Naver, which is a subsidiary of Naver. This way, SoftBank can have a majority stake in society, legally as the largest shareholder. Anyways, they own 50%, so they might have a little more. But as you may know, the Commercial Act in Korea and the Company Law in Japan are very important. They can appoint and dismiss directors, conduct audits, do M&As, and change articles of incorporation. So, if I were SoftBank,

When it comes to executives, if they can buy this time, they might think about buying more than 66.66% of the shares. Also, I'm not sure whether they want to sell Naver or not. But if they want to maintain some level of control over Kakao, from Naver's perspective, they should hold at least 33.333% or more. So, in reality, there may be a considerable discussion about who will take over the 1% share, especially looking at the financial statements of the company's subsidiaries. Depending on the equity method, if someone holds a certain percentage of the subsidiary's shares, the profits of that company will be reflected in theirs. If you look at other media, when Naver is now selling its strategic stake, it is expected to gain profits of around 250 billion won according to the equity method.

They say it will disappear, Naver. However, with about 900 billion won in operating profit now, around 2.5 trillion won can be considered quite large or somewhat small. Anyway, that's when it's all sold off, 50% completely sold off. If it's all sold off, another 10 trillion won will be generated, so you have to think about that a lot, even just the interest. That's how it goes. Also, as you mentioned earlier, Naver now entrusts a significant portion of Line's system development and maintenance work to Naver Cloud. Through this, Naver earns about 1 trillion won a year. However, that 1 trillion won is now cut off, it has to be cut off. Because they will now become independent.

By the end of 2026, since they said they would become independent, they said they would make Naver's legislative relationship their own. So, that means the 1 trillion won disappears now. The real profit on the financial statements depends on how much stock you sell. However, even if you sell all, it's still 250 billion won. So, if you currently own 10%, and now you own 50%, if you sell 10%, about 50 billion won will disappear. Around 500 billion won will be deducted now. But if you sell, you will receive more money. So, if you sell 10%, you might get about 2 trillion won. I don't know how much the premium will be, but that's what they're saying. Yes, looking at that, it may not be such a loss after all. Well, it might not be a loss. In my initial investigation, it seems that Naver's position is to sell the whole if they sell at all. There doesn't seem to be a plan to sell part of it.

I think it's likely that you'll either sell the whole thing, and among the things you mentioned, there are also dividend profits now. Right, so if you own 50%, when you receive dividends now, the dividend profit will be quite significant. I saw this in the news, so although I haven't seen it directly in the financial statements, according to the news, they received over 1 trillion won in dividends last year. And before that, they received 500 billion won. Of course, they received very little before, but dividends can be money that may or may not come out. But in the past 1 to 2 years, they received a lot of dividends. Naver's operating profit is not higher than the operating profit, but they did have quite a bit of operating profit. So, in that aspect, there seems to be an impact. Naver is currently focusing on global expansion. In that sense, Thailand and Taiwan are flying away.

I feel like I might get sick now. Do you think there will be some changes in Naver's global expansion roadmap? If this is sold, well, about this issue, I have been interested in it since a long time ago. I've been steadily buying Naver stocks since 2018, you know. So, the CEO mentioned something back then, like Softbank and all fighting too much. In fact, at that time, some shareholders, even in Japan, thought we should catch the opportunity, right? And even though they spent too much money back then, the market share was quite different. They spent money on PPA and such. Would it be okay to spend money like that? They were reporting about 5,000 won of operating losses per year. So, actually, at that time, although I wasn't an IT journalist, in 2019, the management turmoil was announced.

When that happened, from the perspective of a shareholder, it may not be necessarily bad because, as you mentioned at that time, we didn't know how big the line would be. At that time, the two companies joined forces a bit to lead a better future. I thought it was good because it was about 3 to 4 trillion won per year, but when you asked me about global business, I wasn't a journalist. I've been holding onto the shares for about 7 or 8 years without selling a single share, even during the time of Corona. My return rate was about 12% then, and I didn't sell at that time either because I thought it would get better. But now, speaking as a shareholder, personally, as a shareholder, I have invested in Naver for a long time like this because Naver is not just a company staying in Korea, it will expand continuously.

I thought this way, but if this changes quite a lot, honestly, I am a bit worried. And now, coming back as a journalist, if I lose that foothold, I might need to look for a new acquisition, like the acquisition of Foss Mark completed in January 2023, and move the market in that direction. I am thinking a lot about that. Clearly, in the global market, rather than moving forward with the Naver brand, moving forward with the Line brand would be much more advantageous. It might be a bit sensitive to say this in the Southeast Asian region, but in a way, wouldn't it have been more appealing in Southeast Asia because of Line, which is more popular in Japan? Because Southeast Asia economically has a stronger relationship with Japan, I feel like this might have been more appealing.

However, actually going there and visiting, looking at reports and such, especially in countries like Thailand or Taiwan, they really like Japanese culture a lot, right? That side has a very strong economic influence from Japan. Yes, but now, if Naver steps away from LINE and tries to go out on its own, there will be a lot of problems again from scratch. However, Naver is not completely unable to do overseas business now. Yes, of course, even if LINE Messenger disappears now, webtoons are currently preparing for listing in the United States. In the United States, it may not be as big as during the Corona era, but still, within the geek culture, it is quite popular. It has become a content platform, and then, apps like Zepeto are doing well in China. What about Snow, etc.?

Naver has succeeded globally, and these days, they have a project in Saudi Arabia. It's called Neocity. Naver is now supplying technologies like AI and digital twins through contracts. We should look forward to that area. However, these days, Naver seems to be focused on Saudi Arabia. Neocity is gradually downsizing. When we organize this, among Korean IT companies, Line is considered the most successful global case in terms of services rather than hardware. But the ending is a bit bitter. Why does it end like this? Basically, the biggest fundamental reason is that Naver aimed for business integration.

The cause seems to be that growth has stagnated. At first, they achieved success in Japan, then their influence spread to Thailand and Taiwan. Now, they are exploding in Southeast Asia and East Asia. When they lost their place in the global market, we finally realized that we need to create a platform that can compete with Facebook, Google, and Tencent in China. People at Naver thought, anticipated, invested, and did various things. However, at some point, they couldn't go beyond Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan, and from then on, they couldn't expand. Instead of entering new markets like Kakao in Korea, they started to expand services within the existing market. After this change in strategy, they kept pouring in costs, and that's why they proceeded with business integration. Stagnation in growth was the first reason at that time. Looking back now, this is...

Global political situations cannot be ignored. In fact, it's absurd to say that a country should buy or sell a company's shares, not the company itself. However, in the United States, it has become too common to demand the sale of shares like in the case of the Fight Dance. They make special laws to deal with enemies because you are an enemy. But as we enter a new Cold War era, there are emerging relationships between countries where hostility is present, and such unreasonable demands are becoming a daily occurrence. What do you think, Reporter Hong? Oh, I agree very much with what you said. Your words are all correct. In my opinion, there are definitely some aspects related to the uniqueness of a country like Japan.

I have some thoughts. Actually, if we didn't use LINE as a stepping stone in Japan, but instead were a bit more neutral country, wouldn't things have been a bit different? I have been thinking about this a lot and feel that we should also consider those factors. Yes, it's about the national aspect. Bringing the two of you together today, we have looked back on the process of Naver, LINE, and Yahoo over the past year. As mentioned earlier, it wasn't originally a 50-50 split, as Hong Reporter pointed out. We should now understand and think about this a bit, so that we can make a more objective judgment. I also think it's a bit worrying that many global services are branching out together like sweet potatoes. One thing I want to point out is that we are now somewhat in a Korea-Japan confrontation, right?

So, this is a somewhat overlooked incident in Korea, but there was clearly a security incident. An employee of a partner company was personally infected with malicious code, which leaked the cloud's revision and eventually the master account was compromised. As a result, not only the company itself but also companies in other countries had their accounts compromised. This is something that should not happen. When such incidents occur, it is an absolute disaster because it can destroy the trust inside. Therefore, this issue should be taken more seriously. Anyone can be infected with malicious code, and if the cloud mainframe is compromised, it becomes a serious problem. There tends to be too much emphasis on this issue. Even if only one laptop is compromised, the servers managing the cloud are compromised. So, the accounts, yes, so from there, the accounts, even Japanese employees, why, in the past, they.

It was a company, but there were employees. Yes, we also have Korean employees. The problem is that issues in Korea are not being addressed. Korean personal information has leaked. Yes, it's a problem. Why is this not being reported? What I mean is, as we go back to the past, it seems that issues that should be considered somewhat important are not being addressed. When Kakao was called, it was chaotic because the scale is different. In incidents like this, the scale matters. Anyway, today, well, from the beginning, I've been talking all along, so now, when reading articles or things like that, maybe we can see them in a more balanced way. I wonder how it will unfold. Naver probably doesn't know yet. They probably need to figure it out. I think they are probably pondering over the negotiation almost all night. It was quite a huge topic, so they must prepare diligently.

주셔서 너무 감사드립니다. 두 분, 너무 고생 많으셨습니다. 네, 고맙습니다. 여러분, 2주에 뵙겠습니다. 감사합니다. 네, 감사합니다. 

Thank you so much for your kindness. Both of you have worked so hard. Yes, thank you. We will see you in two weeks. Thank you. Yes, thank you.

글로벌 사업 다 넘겨줄 위기에 빠진 네이버

Technology(기술), Trend(트렌드), Transformation(혁신)에 관해 
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일하는 사람들의 지적 동반자 티타임즈TV. 

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일본, 한국, 네이버 사이의 긴장감

일본 정부는 한국 기업인 네이버가 라인의 모회사인 A홀딩스의 지분 50%를 소유하고 있는 것에 대해 잠재적인 보안 위험에 대한 우려를 표명하고 있습니다.

일본 정부는 라인의 지배구조에 의문을 제기하고 데이터 보안 문제에 대해 민감하게 반응하고 있습니다.

한국인의 일본 정보 접근에 대한 우려와 라인의 데이터 보안 시스템 미흡으로 인해 긴장이 고조되고 있는 가운데, 민감한 상황이 장기화될 조짐을 보이고 있습니다.

라인의 데이터 이전과 기업 구조조정의 영향

특별위원회는 라인의 일본 데이터 이전을 조사하면서 민감한 정보가 일본에 저장될 수 있다는 우려를 제기했습니다.

라인의 기업 구조조정과 경영진 교체로 인해 네이버와의 관계 변화에 대한 추측이 이어지고 있습니다.

네이버가 라인과 야후에 대한 지배력을 강화하면서 라인의 소유와 경영에 상당한 변화가 있을 것으로 예상됩니다.

네이버의 진화하는 라인 지분율

네이버는 처음에 라인의 지분 73.

1%를 보유하여 상당한 지배력을 가지고 있었지만, 상장 후 약 25%로 감소했습니다.

신세계와의 통합으로 네이버의 지분은 더욱 감소하여 50대 50으로 분할되었습니다.

5%이며, A홀딩스가 65%의 지분을 보유하고 있고, 소프트뱅크 등 다른 투자자들도 라인의 경영에 중요한 역할을 하고 있습니다.

50대 50의 지분율에도 불구하고 네이버의 전체 지배력은 약 1%에 불과해 라인이 네이버의 영업이익에 미치는 영향에 대한 주주들의 비판이 제기되고 있습니다.

일본 검색 시장을 장악하려는 네이버의 시도

네이버의 신중호 대표는 일본 검색 시장 진출과 장악을 위해 제일문 인수를 주도했습니다.

이는 구글과 야후의 시장 지배력에 도전하기 위한 조치였습니다.

라인이 일본에서 상당한 입지를 확보하고 있는 상황에서 네이버의 검색 시장 진출은 새로운 영역을 개척하기 위한 전략적 행보였습니다.

라인과 네이버의 합병이 데이터 보안과 비즈니스 운영에 미치는 영향

민감한 의료 및 금융 데이터 산업의 주요 업체인 라인은 중국 내 개발자가 개인 정부 정보에 접근할 수 있게 되면서 위기에 직면했고, 일본에서는 정부의 경고가 이어졌습니다.

라인과 라인 서비스에 대한 네이버의 광범위한 소유권은 안정성을 제공하지만, 지분 관계 재편 가능성으로 인해 대만, 태국, 인도네시아 등 여러 국가에서 라인 서비스의 미래에 대한 의문이 제기되고 있습니다.

라인 플러스가 네이버에 통합될 가능성과 한국 직원들에게 미칠 영향에 대한 불확실성도 주요 논의 사항입니다.

네이버의 라인 매각 가능성과 소프트뱅크에 미치는 영향

네이버의 라인 매각 가능성이 제기되면서 양사에 미칠 영향에 대한 논의가 활발해지고 있습니다.

네이버의 공식 입장은 매각 가능성을 열어두고 이를 염두에 두고 협상에 임한다는 것입니다.

최대 주주인 소프트뱅크가 라인의 지분 확대를 고려하고 있어 인수에 대한 논의가 본격화될 수 있습니다.

이번 매각으로 네이버는 지분법에 따라 약 2,500억 원의 이익을 얻을 수 있을 것으로 예상됩니다.

네이버의 재무 전망과 글로벌 진출

네이버는 라인의 일부 매각을 통해 10조 원에 달하는 막대한 수익을 올릴 것으로 예상됩니다.

또한 라인이 독립을 추진하면서 연간 1조 원의 매출 손실도 예상됩니다.

이러한 잠재적 어려움에도 불구하고 네이버는 미국에서의 웹툰 상장, 중국에서의 제페토와 같은 앱의 성공 등 글로벌 확장 계획을 통해 지속적인 해외 사업 성장의 기회를 마련하고 있습니다.

네이버의 글로벌 진출과 네오시티 프로젝트의 도전 과제

네이버는 현재 네오시티 프로젝트를 통해 사우디아라비아에 인공지능과 디지털 트윈 기술을 공급하는 데 주력하고 있으며, 점차 프로젝트 규모를 축소하고 있습니다.

네이버의 성장 정체와 사업 통합으로의 전환이 근본적인 이유입니다.

글로벌 정치 상황과 보안 사고도 네이버의 운영에 영향을 미쳤으며, 더욱 심각한 주의가 요구되고 있습니다.