Naver

Naver began as an internal venture at Samsung SDS and was spun off in 1999 under Lee Hae-jin. The Korean-language web was thin back then, so Naver filled it itself: its Knowledge iN service, launched in 2002, let users ask and answer questions, and the answers became searchable content living on Naver's own pages. The result is a search engine that would rather not send you anywhere else.

The company has grown well beyond the search box. Its Japanese subsidiary built the messaging app LINE after the 2011 earthquake, and Naver Webtoon turned vertical-scroll comics into a global export. At home its real rival is Kakao, not Google.