Naver to launch super app in Saudi Arabia this year, commissions $728,000 research project

Naver has commissioned a research project worth about 1 billion won ($728,000) through its local joint venture in Saudi Arabia, as the tech company moves ahead with plans to launch a map-based super app in the kingdom this year.

The research is aimed at analyzing local user behavior and finalizing preparations for the super app's launch.

According to the IT industry Tuesday, Naver Innovation issued a purchase order to Saudi research firm Digital Research Company (DRC) on July 23 for a "research service" contract running through Dec. 31. DRC is a local research firm whose main customers include the Saudi government and public institutions.

The contract value exceeds 5 percent of DRC's annual sales for 2025. DRC posted sales of about 47.29 million Saudi riyals (17.29 billion won) last year, putting the contract amount at a minimum of roughly 2.36 million riyals (860 million won).

Industry watchers believe the research contract is part of preparations for the super app Naver is developing. In May last year, Naver unveiled a blueprint to expand its existing digital twin-based services into a map-based super app supporting Saudi residents' daily lives — covering housing, transportation and other everyday needs. The plan calls for applying service technology Naver has built up domestically, including reservations, payments and personalization features, to local conditions in Saudi Arabia.

Naver Innovation, the entity that issued the contract, is itself a local joint venture established specifically to develop the super app. Naver Cloud and NHC Innovation — a digital subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's National Housing Company (NHC) — co-founded the venture last year. Its core projects include building and operating the map-based super app and running a digital twin platform-based business.

Naver has already made significant progress on the digital twin platform that will underpin the super app. A digital twin platform recreates urban spaces — buildings, roads and other infrastructure — as precise three-dimensional data. After winning a contract from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Municipalities and Housing in 2023, Naver completed digital twin platforms for three cities — Mecca, Medina and Jeddah — in June last year. Last month, the platform was also designated as Saudi Arabia's national standard platform.

The map-based super app is considered the flagship lifestyle service to be built on top of the digital twin platform. When Naver completed the digital twin rollout across the three cities last year, it officially announced through Naver Innovation that it would pursue the map-based super app and digital twin system-based platform projects. The super app is envisioned to include features closely tied to users' daily lives, such as place search, navigation, real-time traffic information, reviews and reservations.

DRC's areas of expertise also align closely with the super app project. The firm's core research services cover customer experience, usage behavior and attitudes, user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design research, and product, service and price investigation — giving it specialized knowledge in tracking local consumer trends.

Naver is targeting a super app launch before the end of this year. Naver Chief Executive Choi Su-yeon said during the second-quarter earnings conference call on Aug. 7 that "the joint venture's digital twin platform in Saudi Arabia has been adopted as the national standard platform by the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing, and we are developing the map-based super app with the goal of launching it this year."

Industry observers interpret the research contract as a signal that Naver's Saudi business is transitioning from infrastructure building to actual service localization. Having laid the groundwork through digital twin construction and joint venture formation through last year, the company is now entering a phase of defining the specific features and usage patterns of services that local users will actually use.