Naver recently rejected an advertisement from an AI startup, which had been running ads with Naver for 1 year and 8 months, citing that the startup was a competitor. Last month, Naver suddenly refused to post the startup’s ads. On February 27, Naver informed Ruitone Technologies, the AI startup, that their performance display ads would be rejected because it was confirmed as a competitive service to Naver’s offerings. Despite Ruitone’s request for reconsideration in early March, Naver reiterated that they could not process ads for services deemed competitive.
Ruitone had initially started advertising with Naver back in August 2023, running smoothly until this recent decision. The company’s services include AI search, image generation, and AI-powered summaries for documents and videos. Naver’s terms state that they can review ad content and reject or suspend it if it breaches certain conditions, although refusal due to competition is not explicitly stated in the terms. However, their guidelines do mention that ads competing with major services may be restricted.
Naver’s actions have drawn criticism as it contradicts the spirit of cooperation needed to strengthen the national AI capabilities, as well as Naver’s own initiatives to support startups through its D2SF support organization since 2015.