Naver Papago launches 'Trend' for foreign tourists in South Korea

South Korean internet giant Naver announced on October 19 that its translation app Papago has launched a new service called "Trend," designed to help foreign tourists visiting South Korea discover popular products and tourist attractions. The service utilizes data generated from foreign users' use of the image translation feature within Papago to identify and recommend products and locations that have seen rising interest recently.

"Trend" supports four languages: English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. Users can access it via a button in the top right corner of the app's home screen. In the product section, the service offers a "Top 100" list of popular items, "Rising" emerging products, and categories such as Beauty, Food, and Health. When a user clicks on a specific product, an artificial intelligence generates a briefing of key information displayed in the user's device language, while also linking to related blog posts and Naver Shopping pages for detailed descriptions and user reviews.

In the location section, the service selects 100 popular places based on image translation usage volume and displays "Hot Spots" in major areas like Myeongdong, Hongdae, and Seongsu in Seoul, as well as tourist destinations like Jeju Island and Busan. Selecting a specific place shows information registered on Naver Place, including location, business hours, menu, and user ratings, integrated with navigation and reservation features. Naver stated that this represents a shift from users actively querying objects they photograph to passively discovering new items through aggregated group behavior data.