Daum (web portal)

Daum (Korean: 다음) is a South Korean web portal. Daum was founded in 1995 and launched on December 20th, 1995 by the company Daum Communications.  It also offers a variety of services, including cloud storage (Daum Cloud), Daum Dictionary (for mobile devices), Daum Comics, and map service (Daum Maps).^[1]

Statue in front of Daum Space.

Daum

Logo since 2025
Type of site	Web portal
Available in	Korean
Owner	Kakao Corp.
URL	daum.net
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Optional
Users	6.9 million (Mobile MAU)
Launched	May 1997; 27 years ago (1997-05)
Current status	Online

Daum
Hangul	다음
Revised Romanization	Daeum
McCune–Reischauer	Taŭm

Daum Kakao is the company behind the Kakao messaging service and Daum is a Korean web portal with many services.^[2]

History

The former Daum Communications Corporation was founded in 1994 by Park Geon-hee and Lee Jae-woong (businessperson), and the company launched the namesake portal in May 1997 making it the first South Korean web portal.^[1]

Daum offers various Internet services to web users, including a popular free web-based e-mail, messaging services, shopping, news services.^[1]

In 2006, they started a blogging service Tistory a blogging platform developing company.^[3]

Daum company also develops and distributes the freeware media player PotPlayer.^[1]

In addition to its freeware media player (Daum tvPot), Daum Communications Corp. provides a variety of services such as clouding service (Daum Cloud), Daum Dictionary (applicable on mobile devices), Daum Comics, and map service (Daum Maps).^[4]

Daum has about 874 employees as of March 2009, and was the 2nd largest web portal service provider in South Korea in terms of daily visits.^[5]

In 2014, Daum merged with Kakao Corp. (at that time known as Kakao Inc.), known as the maker of KakaoTalk, to form Daum Kakao.^[6]

Logos

• 
  1995–2000
• 
  2000–2010^[7]
• 
  2010–2013^[8]
• 
  2013–2025
• 
  2025– (current)^[9]

Service

Daum Mail

The popularity of Daum stems from the range of services it offers, but also from the fact that it was the first Korean web portal of significant size. Daum popularity started when it merged with the then most popular e-mail service, daum.net or hanmail.net.^[1]

Daum Cafe

After the merging, Daum started the forum service Daum Cafe which brought it firm status in the market. Daum received the eighth-highest trust rating in a 2020 Reuters Institute survey of selected South Korean media outlets.^[10]

See also

• South Korea portal
• Companies portal
• Internet portal

• Search engine
• Timeline of web search engines
• Comparison of web search engines
• Tistory

Notes

References

1. "Kakao company". kakaocorp.com (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-11-17.
2. matthew (2014-02-03). "KakaoTalk Nominated for Most Innovative Mobile App Award at Global Mobile Awards 2014". Businesskorea (in Korean). Retrieved 2025-01-14.
3. "카카오 티스토리 블로그에 '후원' 모델 도입". 다음 - 미디어오늘. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
4. "카카오맵". 카카오맵 (in Korean). Retrieved 2024-11-10.
5. "NHN, 포털 1위 쉽게 내주지 않을 것-교보". Edaily [ko] (in Korean). 2009-06-03. Archived from the original on 2020-07-29. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
6. Shu, Catherine (26 May 2014). "Kakao And Daum To Merge, Creating One Of South Korea's Largest Internet Companies". Archived from the original on 26 May 2014. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
7. <다음Daum, 로고 및 홈페이지 전면 개편> 개인화서비스를 강조한 “다음2.0버전“ 새롭게 선보여. Kakao Corp. (in Korean). 2000-01-10. Retrieved 2025-01-14.
8. 이희욱 (2010-04-14). CI 바꾼 다음, "최고의 검색 품질, 모바일로 확장". Bloter (in Korean). Retrieved 2025-01-14.
9. 다음의 새 로고를 소개합니다. daum (in Korean). 2025-01-10. Retrieved 2025-01-14.
10. Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2020 (PDF). University of Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. p. 102. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-05-31. Retrieved 2021-05-23.

External links

• Media related to Daum (web portal) at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website