[Initial Insight] The Hidden Side of the Suspension of the 'News Alliance Evaluation Committee'

'Gyeryuk' More Harm Than Benefit for Portal Companies
Government Moves to Legalize Jepyungwi as Statutory Organization

The News Alliance Evaluation Committee (Je-pyeong-wi), which had been controlling news content supply contracts with major portals, has effectively entered the process of disbandment. Naver and Kakao, the giant portals that accounted for over 70% of online news distribution, have proposed a temporary suspension, and it is reported that Je-pyeong-wi has accepted this. Established in 2016 as a private autonomous organization, it has ceased operations after seven years following various ups and downs.

Je-pyeong-wi was born during a time when traditional newspaper and broadcasting platforms were completely dependent on portal sites, under the pretext of "healthy development of the online news ecosystem." Under the name of "content partnership," it created qualitative and quantitative evaluation criteria to review whether specific media companies could be featured on portal pages, and the major portals used this as a basis to classify and manage media companies by grade. It also played a role in imposing disadvantages to provide readers with fair and high-quality news.

Although the rationale for its establishment was plausible, it struggled to settle in. Disputes over fairness surrounding the news editing and services of the giant portals often spilled over to Je-pyeong-wi, and it was difficult to form a committee of 15 members, each recommended by 15 participating organizations. Although it aimed to be a "neutral" organization, it was far from free from all sorts of critical issues such as opaque deliberations, excessively high partnership thresholds, bias, favoritism toward certain media, and becoming a power institution.

The Naver-Kakao News Partnership Evaluation Committee held a press conference to announce the partnership evaluation regulations on the 7th at the Press Center. (Photo by Baek Soa)

The temporary suspension of Je-pyeong-wi is somewhat understandable from the perspective of portal companies. It must have been a burdensome existence negatively affecting corporate value. Due to incalculable conflict costs, the disadvantages likely outweighed the benefits. Considering that Naver is attempting to revive the "real-time search service," which it had abolished amid public opinion distortion controversies, a sense of crisis stemming from YouTube and Google gradually increasing their market share also seems to have played a part.

According to statistics from mobile big data platform company IGAWorks, the number of monthly active users (MAU) for "KakaoTalk" and "YouTube" in May was approximately 41.45 million and 40.95 million respectively, narrowing the gap to a historic minimum of about 500,000. Naver, the undisputed number one in the search market, saw its market share fall below 60% in February and steadily decrease to 55.7% in May. Meanwhile, Google surpassed 30% during the same period and rose to 34.5% last month.

Legacy media has been the most active in spreading controversies surrounding Je-pyeong-wi and shifting the responsibility onto the portals. This is seen as a move to change the power dynamics that had been dependent on portals as stakeholders. To compensate for declining revenues, legacy media needed the distribution fees allocated by the giant portals and the so-called "click counts" generated through portals, and to achieve this, they had to produce provocative and highly volatile news despite internal and external criticism. During the rapid growth of portals, media companies focused only on immediate profits, failing to develop self-regulation capabilities, and did not respond timely and collectively to the monopolistic dominance of portals. Now, they are changing their stance.

In addition, the ruling party and government have also begun raising their voices through the Korea Communications Commission, seeking alternatives under the theme of "political bias." There are plans to legalize Je-pyeong-wi as a statutory organization. If Je-pyeong-wi becomes a statutory body, direct or indirect government intervention in media companies partnered with major portals will be inevitable, raising concerns that it could degenerate into a "state-controlled portal," but the government seems determined to push forward. Will it be possible to find an alternative that satisfies both news producers and consumers? For a while, the conflict of interests among media companies, major portals, and the government over alternatives to Je-pyeong-wi, which was an independent organization for the "healthy development of the online news ecosystem," appears unavoidable.

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