Seoul: The rate of online searches via Naver Corp., South Korea's leading internet portal operator, has seen a significant drop over the past nine years amid growing competition, an industry report revealed. According to Yonhap News Agency, the Korean portal giant captured a 57.32 percent share of the domestic search engine market in the first 10 months of this year, with global search engine Google following at 33.9 percent. This marks a notable decline from Naver's 78.06 percent market share in 2015 when Google was ranked third with only 7.31 percent, trailing behind Daum, a local internet portal now operated by Kakao Corp., which held an 11.74 percent share. The report highlighted a shift in the search market paradigm due to advancements in artificial intelligence technology, particularly following the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2022. This model transformed search engines from providing lists of information in response to user queries to delivering more customized and summarized answers. This year s aw significant growth in the domestic market for foreign search engines equipped with AI features, such as those from Google and Microsoft. In response to these changes, Naver announced its plan last week to incorporate AI technology into its search platform, aiming to offer more tailored answers to users' inquiries in line with global trends. Furthermore, Naver has been testing a separate generative AI search service developed last year, named "Cue:," to enhance its competitiveness in the evolving search engine landscape.