Naver to Introduce Star Ratings for Place Reviews, Full Revamp Within the Year

[Financial News] Naver Corporation will introduce a star-based numerical rating system for Naver Place reviews covering restaurants, lodging, performances, and more. The goal is to strengthen "intuitiveness" so users can quickly grasp overall satisfaction at a glance.
Naver Corporation announced on the 18th, via a notice on Naver SmartPlace, that it will overhaul its Naver Place review service within the year and introduce numerical auxiliary indicators such as star ratings.
The core of this revamp is to combine the existing qualitative review structure with numerical information. Until now, Naver Place has conveyed the atmosphere of a venue and user experiences mainly through keyword, photo, and text-based reviews, but critics have pointed out that it was difficult to intuitively gauge overall satisfaction.
Starting April 6, users will be able to leave a star rating on a five-point scale when writing a review, in addition to text and keywords. The individual ratings will be converted into an average score, displayed as stars in the review tab, and shown alongside existing keyword and text reviews.
The change will apply to most Naver Place categories, including restaurants, shopping, lodging, and performances or exhibitions, effectively covering almost all types of listings.
These user-submitted star ratings will be converted into an average figure and displayed in the Naver Place review tab in the form of stars. Existing text reviews and representative keywords will be arranged together so users can see them at a glance after the rating.
However, the numerical indicators will not be made public for a certain period immediately after launch. To secure data reliability and fairness, the information will initially be shared only with reviewers and business owners during the collection phase, and Naver plans to provide separate guidance later on whether and how the data will be disclosed.
A notable feature is that business owners will be able to decide for themselves whether to make their star ratings public. If they choose not to display them, they can maintain the existing structure centered on qualitative reviews.
Measures to enhance review reliability will also be strengthened. Going forward, users will only be allowed to edit their reviews within three months of posting, a restriction intended to prevent abusive behavior such as changing ratings long after the actual visit. Naver will also sequentially roll out a revamp of the review tab within the year to improve the clarity and impact of Naver Place review information.
A Naver Corporation representative said, "We plan to improve the overall review experience, for example by redesigning keyword reviews, which have enjoyed high satisfaction among business owners, into a more intuitive visual format."


yjjoe@fnnews.com Reporter Cho Yoon-joo Reporter