[Edaily Lee So-Hyun Reporter Ahn Yu-ri] Naver (NAVER(035420)) has requested a police investigation, alleging that the “reward search” marketing campaign by Viva Republica, the operator of Toss, is disrupting its search service. After Naver demanded that multiple companies conducting similar marketing campaigns cease their activities, all companies except Toss complied. It was revealed that Toss accounts for 99% of the reward marketing activities identified by Naver as constituting platform abuse.

According to the information technology (IT) industry on the 4th, Naver requested an investigation by the Southern Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency around February of this year, accusing Viva Republica of obstruction of business and violations of the Information and Communications Network Act.

The police have questioned a Naver official as a witness and received relevant materials, and plan to verify the facts by questioning Toss representatives.

The issue centers on reward-based marketing campaigns, such as the “Check-in Mission” operated within the Toss app. Users are required to search for specific products on Naver to earn points, then find a tag on the product page, or search for specific restaurants or locations to check and enter information such as menu prices or walking distances. In some missions, completing these tasks results in the award of a small amount of Toss points.

Naver believes that inducing large-scale searches and clicks on specific products or locations in exchange for monetary rewards generates artificial traffic unrelated to actual user interest, which can undermine the reliability of search results. In particular, Naver maintains that if traffic is concentrated on specific keywords and businesses on platforms like Naver Store and Naver Places, it could negatively impact the visibility of other merchants.

Naver explains that it did not single out Toss alone. It had previously sent official letters to other businesses that had conducted reward-based marketing using Naver Search in a similar manner, requesting that they cease such activities. According to Naver, all businesses except Toss replied indicating their intention to discontinue the relevant marketing campaigns.

Naver also explained that there was a significant difference in scale. An analysis of abusive reward marketing traffic targeting Naver’s platform revealed that Toss accounted for approximately 99% of the total.

It is reported that Naver had previously requested Toss to cease reward marketing that could undermine the credibility of its search service last year, but after its request was rejected, it ultimately requested a police investigation.

Regarding this matter, Toss stated, “As this is currently under police investigation, we have no information to disclose.”