Google’s app overtook Naver in South Korea’s monthly active users (MAU) for the first time, with 47,022,854 MAUs in July, ranking first among productivity apps, while Naver fell to second with 46,845,017 users, a gap of approximately 177,837 users. This is the first time Google has surpassed Naver since MobileIndex began compiling statistics in March 2021. Google’s app first exceeded 40 million users in May last year and broke through 46 million in May this year; after narrowing the gap to roughly 245,836 users in June, it flipped the rankings in one month. Naver’s MAUs fluctuated between 43 million and 46 million from January 2023 to last month. Google Chrome ranked third with 42,457,506 MAUs. Analysts attribute Google’s growth to generative AI, citing its Gemini model and AI-integrated search features. ChatGPT recorded 16,456,151 MAUs last month, ranking seventh, roughly 2.6 times Daum’s 6,307,395 users. ChatGPT’s MAU was in the 5 million range in March last year, trailing Daum’s 7.6 million, but surpassed Daum in April last year after jumping to the 10 million range. Experts see a shift from keyword-based searches to conversational AI, though some caution it is premature to declare a complete change