Why Google can't dominate search in Korea

http://www.link-assistant.com/blog/google-vs-naver-why-cant-google-dominate-search-in-korea/

Above is the link to an old article on why Google can't dominate in certain regions of the world, namely Korea. From our last lecture I noticed that Google doesn't have the dominant position in countries such as Russia, China, Japan and Korea, and I wanted to comment further on why that is for some regions (aside from the fact that Google is banned in mainland China). I think I found one that best explains the rationale behind Google's performance in Korea.

Main reason behind Naver (local web portal in Korea) to outperform Google is that they generate search results that are more optimized for searches couducted in Korean language. Google can basically search for any website links out in the world containing that exact phrase, but Naver delivers search results that aligns with what the search was targeting to find. This may be because Google basically has to search the entire world for their results, while Naver can just focus on the local webpages.

Once interesting thing I found some time ago was that Yahoo! Japan and Naver Korea's website format are very similar. They still adopt the traditional web portal image, with multiple layers of hot topics presented in a multi-layer text format. Long before Google's blank, user-driven search function was viewed as the global norm, portals in Korea and Japan must have locked their local users to using this type of format.

Web search behavior is very local, and it is very hard to change the way certain users view the internet. Google has done a great job in creating a simple, non-noisy environment to conduct voluntary searches. In order to attract more users from regions where people like to have information presented to them, maybe they need a different approach.