- Naver Whale signs a five-party MOU with Drimaes, Team Yper, Carang, and Last 30 Minutes

- Advancement O2O service expected by providing an integrated platform in the vehicle... Opens up the possibility of colorful collaboration in the near future

Naver Whale announced on November 11 that it has signed MOUs forcooperation in mobility business with Drimaes (CEO Lim Jin-woo), Team Yper (CEOMoon Hyun-gu), Carang (CEO Park Jong-gwan), and Last 30 Minutes (CEO LeeJong-seon).

In this collaboration, Naver Whale will build a service platformbased on web technology, Drimaes will provide vehicle infotainment technologyand methodology, and the remaining partners will each provide O2O services forvehicles operating on the newly established service platform.

Whale was prepared through the strategic business cooperationwith Continental-Drimaes that has the in-vehicle IVI system configuration whichis essential to function as an extended platform in the browser. Also.through the agreement with the vehicle O2O service, the already established IVIsystem has become an integrated service platform, and the company explainedthat it can be connected with. vehicle service providers can operate webservices in vehicles without creating separate AOS and IOS mobile apps.

Naver Whale leader Kim Hyo said, "This MOU has greatsignificance in that we have built a new mobility service ecosystem that can bemass-produced by putting O2O services for vehicles of various start-ups thatare actually servicing them on a Whale-based integrated service platform. Weare opening up the possibility of collaboration with various partners outsideof service companies, from car entertainment functions such as music, movies,and games to travel navigation and fuel price comparison."  

Team Yper is a company that possesses unrivaled offlinecompetitiveness and expertise in car wash service. When customers makereservations and payments easily with a smartphone, the car manager moves towhere the car is, washes cars by hand, and returns it safely back to thecustomer. Another advantage of this service is that it has made a technicalalliance with Hyundai Motors' in-house venture company Tune It, enabling theuse of an online on-site car wash system in the non-face-to-facemethod. “We will cooperate with Drimaes and Naver to make our service themost comfortable car wash service for drivers,” said CEO Moon of Team Yper.

Carang, an on-site vehicle maintenance company, already has450,000 users through customized systems, quick maintenance, and 11 standardsafety checks. It also analyzes the user's data to establish a vehiclemanagement system in real-time and manages consumables periodically. CEOPark of Carang said, "We expect that this agreement will make the day inwhich everyone gets vehicle management at the convenience of your houses comesearlier."

Last 30 Minutes, the company that runs the real-time valetparking service Itcha, shares parking spaces in nearby parking lots inreal-time to increase user convenience and maximize space utilization so thatusers receive a lower parking fee compared to the average in the surroundingarea. With this, Itcha has an insurance plan designed especially for thecompany, so users can safely leave the vehicle to the drivers who have receivedprofessional training. CEO Lee of Last 30 Minutes said that through thisagreement, the company has contributed one step further to the creation of anew UX for finished vehicles and laid a foothold for moving forward.

CEO Kim of Drimaes, thecompany that provides vehicle infotainment technology and methodology, said,“We are pleased to cooperate with Korea's leading online platform Naver andmobility service companies. Through this agreement, we will continuously builda new service ecosystem that fits IVI and discover user experience.”

Naver is based in Pangyo,Pangyo Technovalley is the Asia Tech Hub where more than 1,200 companies in IT,CT, and BT sectors with innovative products and technologies are gathered.Located just south of the Seoul metropolitan area, easy transportation accessand infrastructure provides the best environment for Korean companies toconduct businesses.

Various high-techcompanies are located here, with more than 64 thousand full-time workers with avast majority in their 20s and 30s. By industries, companies in the high-techindustry are made up of IT companies, content technology companies,biotechnology companies, and nanotechnology companies.

With the support frominnovative companies with global capabilities like Kakao, NHN Entertainment,AhnLab, Krafton, NCSOFT, Nexon, and Hancom at hand, companies in PangyoTechnovalley made over 100 trillion in revenue this year. A 20% increase fromlast year, it is expected to become one of the best IT clusters in Korea innear future, along with advanced technology research institutes like AdvancedInstitute of Convergence Technology, KAIST, ETRI, and KETI working together todevelop the relevant technologies further.