South Korea's largest internet portal, Naver, was fined $ 23 million for the first time for manipulating search results in favor of its own online shopping service.
For all you know, Naver is exactly like Google in South Korea, which includes daily life updates through services including news portals, online shopping and blogs.
In addition, it is the third largest company mentioned on Seoul's major stock exchanges, with a market capitalization of 50 trillion won, forged its name after memory chip giant Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
The Korean Trade Commission, the country's antitrust lawyer, revealed that Naver changed the algorithm several times between 2012 and 2015 to elevate its own product higher than its competitors. They are alleged to have introduced a system that "guarantees a certain percentage" of the top search results are from its own online shopping service.
Accordingly, the action is considered a market malpractice and a scam to customers.
Even more shocking, this is the first time Seoul has sentenced a search operator company for making algorithm changes for its own benefit.
Meanwhile, Naver is rumored to dominate the search market in South Korea's online shopping sector by more than 70%
However, they rejected the decision and promised to present evidence in court.
