Naver Cloud Joins EU Alliance... "Targeting Asia-Pacific, Heading to Europe"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Choi] Naver Cloud is in the process of joining the European Union (EU) Cloud Alliance. Based on its established presence in the Asia-Pacific region, it plans to expand into the cloud markets of Europe and the United States.

Park Won-gi, CEO of Naver Cloud, announced this at the annual developer conference, 'Naver Cloud Summit 2022,' on the 14th. The EU Cloud Alliance is an organization composed of 39 companies aimed at fostering Europe-tailored cloud services. If Naver Cloud joins, it will be the only member from a non-European country.

As a core competitive advantage for targeting Europe, Park highlighted the 'Sovereign Cloud.' The Sovereign Cloud is a cloud service based on local data centers that complies with each country's government regulations. Interest in Sovereign Cloud has increased as countries, centered on the EU, emphasize data sovereignty and strengthen related regulations. Unlike foreign cloud providers that adhere to global standards, Naver Cloud offers a high-quality Sovereign Cloud service.

A Naver Cloud representative said, "In the Southeast Asian and Japanese markets, we provide a product lineup almost equivalent to that in Korea," adding, "We are ready to quickly enter the European and American markets if business opportunities arise."

As a short-term goal to lay the foundation for European expansion, Naver Cloud aims to become a top 3 provider in the Asia-Pacific region. The ambition is to increase influence in Southeast Asia, centered on Singapore. Launched in 2017, Naver Cloud is currently ranked among the top 5 providers in the Asia-Pacific region.

To this end, last month, Naver Cloud signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Singapore's largest telecommunications company, StarHub. The two companies will combine cloud and telecommunications capabilities to target Southeast Asian businesses and government agencies. In Thailand, they are piloting the collaboration tool Naver Works with local company CDG Group, while in Japan, they are working with Naver Labs to produce high-precision maps.

CEO Park emphasized, "Thanks to Naver Cloud, a latecomer, choosing not to take the easy path but to face challenges head-on, we have prepared to grow one step further as a leading cloud player active in the global market within a short period of five years," adding, "We will enhance global regions and develop our own technology to compete with established leaders."

Meanwhile, this year's Naver Cloud Summit was held under the slogan 'Connected by Hyperscale,' featuring four keynotes and about 40 sessions. It introduced Team Naver's know-how and various business cases, including service redundancy and disaster recovery technologies, artificial intelligence (AI), and data.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.