ChatGPT Users Surpass 20 Million: The Current State of Domestic AI Services

Naver and Kakao to Launch Specialized AI for Commerce and Finance
Ruitn Offers Free GPT-5, Surpassing ChatGPT Among Users in Their 20s

Yonhap News Agency

Last month, the number of Monthly Active Users (MAU) for ChatGPT in South Korea reached a record high of 20.31 million. This figure represents nearly a fivefold increase in just one year. In June, OpenAI announced that South Korea has the second-largest number of paid subscribers worldwide, following the United States. In contrast, Gemini by Alphabet, which has 450 million users globally, has only around 100,000 MAU in South Korea, highlighting a stark difference. So, how are domestic platforms, which are accelerating the internalization of AI agents using local data, performing?

Naver and Kakao: Domestic Data-Driven 'Vertical Agents'

On September 10, Hana Securities identified Naver, Kakao, and Coupang as companies capable of providing integrated AI agent services in South Korea in its report titled "Domestic AI Services, GPT and What's Next?" The report analyzed that these companies can achieve additional growth by absorbing traffic from their sub-platforms.

Naver plans to expand its AI briefing service to cover up to 20% of queries within this year. Additionally, at the upcoming DAN 25 Conference in November, Naver will showcase the specific features of a dedicated AI tab next to integrated search. Lee Junho, an analyst at Hana Securities, explained, "By linking various vertical agent services such as commerce, places, and finance, the company ultimately aims to develop an integrated AI agent capable of search, reservation, and payment."

Kakao is set to unveil AI services utilizing OpenAI's GPT API at If Kakao on the 23rd of this month. It is expected that users will be able to interact with the service via a ChatGPT icon on the chat tab or through a call function similar to Meta AI. There are also expectations for services that use Kakao's offerings through prompts. This will supplement the existing shop search with AI, and if activated, could contribute to increased user engagement time.

Unlisted Ruitn Surpasses 7 Million Monthly Users

Ruitn, an unlisted company, is advancing its services by offering GPT-5 for free, similar to Perplexity in South Korea. In April, it separately launched the AI character chat service "Crack," which has secured nearly 2 million MAU.

The web and app MAU for all of Ruitn's services is estimated to exceed 7 million. The company aims to reach 10 million users within this year. In the first half of the year, it ranked first in average usage time per person among the top 20 chatbot AI apps in South Korea, surpassing ChatGPT. Analyst Lee noted, "It is gaining popularity among younger generations and could emerge as a dark horse depending on future external partnerships."

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