Naver's Kim On Tie-Up Talks With Dunamu

Bloomberg

Watch Naver's Kim On Tie-Up Talks With Dunamu - Bloomberg on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00So, I bet it's going to be hard for you to give any confirmation about the interest in Upbid,

00:06but would it make sense? Are you interested? Talk to us about the level of appetite.

00:12I apologize. I can't comment on deals that haven't been determined yet, but I will tell you this.

00:18We love platform businesses. We like platform businesses with strong moats.

00:23And Aver Financial is Korea's largest fintech company. We are the largest payment processor

00:28in Korea. We're always looking strategically. How do we grow that business and how do we provide

00:32more interesting services and products to our customers? And the other interesting thing is

00:37there's a lot of capital, private wealth capital in Korea looking to go elsewhere, looking to go

00:42abroad. And they lack the vehicles to actually find those good opportunities abroad. That will

00:47always be a challenge for us. I know you can't really talk much about it. I'm just wondering what

00:52the benefits are of having a company like Upbid, which is a crypto exchange in a country that loves

01:00cryptocurrencies. And the legislation in the country is supportive of that. I think you answered your own

01:06question. Right. So there's a lot of demand. Exchange businesses are durable businesses with moats. And it

01:14would be an attractive investment for most companies. And that could improve efficiencies, cut fees. What are the benefits of it?

01:22Well, the benefits of collaboration are more than just efficiencies and fees. The benefits of collaboration for

01:29Naver with any other company would be how do we help the companies we invest in expand offshore? How do we

01:35introduce more products and services into the Naver portfolio? Because the Naver reach in Korea is the largest of all internet

01:43companies. We have the largest group of daily active users and fintech customers. You know, earlier we talked about how

01:51Naver shares have, you know, such 16%. Is that already properly reflecting the potential of the company when you take a look at the

02:02plans for expansion in the next 12 to 24 months? I can only tell you Naver is a privileged company and it is it's

02:10shared it possesses a unique space in Korean industry. I can only believe that we have yet to be fully valued

02:18and any short-term swings are probably short-term swings. We also talked about how, you know, Naver is looking at that deal with

02:27Dunamu. Talk to us about why that would make sense. This was the deal you were just talking about, right?

02:32Again, I can't mention or talk with specificity around deals that are still under discussion. But for the largest fintech player in

02:42Korea, and as you mentioned, with so much demand, we're always looking to expand our portfolio.

02:46How about Naver and Nexon? It does look like that. There are lots of deals that Naver is looking at. I mean, you have signed a preliminary

02:54partnership. Where do you go from there? Well, the gaming space is consolidating globally, right? And you

03:00have very few Asian centers of portfolios, Asian champions of games. The Sony family is one of them.

03:10You have a couple of the Chinese families. They're probably one of the larger Korean IP holders. We'll

03:18always think strategically. But regardless of a deal, there's always lots of room for collaboration. We can help

03:23them distribute. They can also help strengthen our brand. Of course, the big question when it comes to

03:29Nexon is the path to acquiring the holding company, because this is something that even the government

03:36has failed to do. Is there a realistic path to that? How are you looking at it? It's tricky. You have tax regime

03:44considerations. You have estate considerations. And you also have a legislature that, in terms of

03:50inheritance tax, hasn't quite settled their bill yet. So, in terms of one to 10, the level of

03:58confidence, conviction? I think it's one of the most challenging structural things that you can see.

04:04But where there is a will, there's probably, if there's sufficient demand, if there's a strong buyer,

04:10I'm sure they can figure a way out. And we know that Naver is deploying capital. It has a lot to deploy to

04:15start with. In the space of AI, what would make sense for you? We're always looking through the

04:20full stack of AI. Naver is a leading AI player in Asia, the leader in Korea. We have our own

04:27foundational model. We also have our own cloud services and enterprise services. We're looking for

04:32interesting companies with verticalized models at the infrastructure layer, at the data layer,

04:39all the way up to the application layer. We're verticalized with our own enterprise services and cloud

04:44capacity. We think we can provide a compelling product for clients in Korea and also across

04:49broader Asia. So, you're in conversations? We're always looking and investing into

04:55leading edge AI companies. Within Asia, overseas? Asia, overseas. I spend most of my time in Silicon

05:02Valley. That's where all the action is happening. That's where all the most innovative companies are.

05:06We do see an interesting company called 12 Labs. We've partnered with them recently. They're

05:10headquartered both in Seoul and San Francisco. They are a leading video understanding player,

05:16a leader in modeling in that sense. We believe that they've already made inroads into the largest

05:22media names in the United States, also to formidable government agencies to provide video understanding,

05:28security and surveillance understanding for a lot of traditional conglomerates as well.

05:34Would it be fair to say that we can expect deals to be announced in the next 12, 24 months?

05:42We always look at deals and Poshmark was one of the biggest acquisitions that we made two years ago.

05:48You can see we're leaning into that. How do we improve that company? How do we

05:52accelerate the growth of the company and expand its global presence?

05:55And speaking of Poshmark, of course, you become officially the CEO of the company today.

06:00What's front and center? What's top of your priority list?

06:03Yeah, Poshmark, we believe, is becoming and will become a formidable destination for shopping.

06:10It's where shoppers can come to find brand and merchandise at attractive prices,

06:14unique vintage products that you can't find anywhere else. And for Naver, our job is to,

06:19our mission is to infuse our search technology, our AI technology into the company to reimagine how the

06:26shopper actually shops. It's kind of like recreating the offline experience where you roll,

06:31well, you stroll down a promenade or you walk into a shop and a concierge can help you. All of that,

06:36we believe that we can fairly recreate through the online experience. So that's our mission.

06:42So what kind of investments have been planned for you to realize, you know, that vision?

06:47Yes, a big investment into the team, a big investment into talent, a big investment.

06:51Can you quantify that? Is there a number you can attach?

06:54I can't quantify that yet, but it's considerable. We're making mostly talent into infrastructure,

07:00into really expanding the business.

07:02Interesting that it is all coming in the time when we're seeing,

07:05you know, tariffs being imposed. Would a model like Poshmark benefit from the tariffs being imposed?

07:12Of course. I mean, tariffs, obviously, tariffs give us tailwinds. But regardless, beyond tariffs,

07:18I think with a long period of accumulated inflation, widening disparities in income and wealth,

07:26provide a good opportunity for destinations where you can find beloved branded merchandise at

07:32attractive prices. And we're more than just a reused or pre-owned merchandise platform. We're more than

07:40just C2C. The lines there, the boundaries are blurring. So whether it's new, whether it's old,

07:45especially the younger generation, those distinctions don't matter anymore.

07:49What are the risks to the business model?

07:52Well, we believe more upside than risks. And it's our job to really capture that moment. It's

07:58who is, who can actually reimagine shopping? Who can make it the enjoyable experience that it is

08:04offline? Who can recreate that online before anyone else has? We believe we're very well positioned to do it,

08:08with a well capitalized parent like Naver, with a well capitalized tech stack like Naver has,

08:13and the capital and the ambitions to expand, including the brand and the trends coming from

08:20Korea. We believe Poshmark can be a destination where you can also discover up and coming K-beauty brands.

08:26In terms of the markets that will drive the growth at Poshmark, which ones might they be?

08:35Well, Poshmark is North America, primarily. So it's the United States, it's Canada.

08:40We do have ambitions to grow outside of those two countries. We see many similarities across Korea,

08:46Japan, and the U.S. in terms of consumer preferences, and also a wealth of high quality inventory.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended