NAVER AND KAKAO GOES GLOBAL

[Anchor Lead]

Naver and Kakao, Korea's top-two IT giants, are competing to make inroads in to the global market.

[Pkg]

Naver's Line is a popular messenger app among the Japanese public, with 70 percent of the country's population using it.

[Soundbite] Park Min-woo(Naver Line) : "More than 200 million people worldwide use Line. We provide diverse services based on this platform, such as FinTech, shopping, games, block chain, delivery and entertainment."

Naver's CEO Choi Soo-yeon says he's determined to further expand its global presence by creating more services similar to Line. The IT giant plans to extend its global reach across Asia, North America and Europe to secure one billion global users and 15 trillion won in sales within five years. Kakao is also eyeing overseas markets. Its founder, Kim Beom-su, has stepped down from the post of chairman of the board in order to focus on the company's global operations. He aims to raise Kakao's overseas sales, which currently fall below 20 percent, to 30 percent within three years.

[Soundbite] Kim Sung-su(Board Chair, Kakao) : "Our strategy is to secure global strongholds and expand our market share further through synergies among communities."

Pundits say there is another reason Korean IT firms look to expand their global presence. They feel increasing pressure in the domestic market over accusations of threatening the livelihoods of small stores and the controversy over their platform fees.

[Soundbite] Yoo Hwan-ik(Federation of Korean Industries) : "Intensifying regulations against platform companies, negative public sentiment, and restrictions on investment and transactions make it difficult to do business in Korea."

There are calls for regulations to help IT firms arbitrate conflicts with existing businesses when starting new projects, as a decrease in their domestic investment could result in fewer local jobs.