A promotional image advertising that Naver Plus membership users can get free access to Uber One for a yearNAVER
The once-close partnership between Naver and Uber appears to be at a crossroads.
The partnership between Naver's membership program Naver Plus and Uber One, a membership program for Uber, ended late last month, Naver said Sunday. The end comes just one year after the two companies began offering Uber One membership benefits to Naver Plus subscribers in September 2025.
“The membership partnership ended because the contract expired,” a Naver representative said.
Naver Plus subscribers who enrolled in the Uber One program by Sept. 29 will be able to receive the benefits for one year from their enrollment date.
The partnership's lackluster performance is believed to have contributed to the decision not to renew it.
Uber's monthly active users rose from 680,000 in September 2025, just before the partnership began, to 800,000 in December, according to mobile data analytics firm Mobile Index. However, the increase was short-lived. The number fell back to 680,000 in September.
During the same period, ride-hailing app Kakao T maintained a dominant position, with monthly active users ranging from 13.6 million to 15.3 million.
Ride-hailing platforms benefit from a cycle in which a growing user base attracts more drivers, improving vehicle availability and reducing wait times. Those improvements, in turn, attract more users.
As a latecomer to Korea's ride-hailing market, Uber appears to have struggled to gain ground against Kakao T, which had already built a strong base of drivers and users.
“Uber tends to offer a lot of price promotions, such as coupons, but it was probably not enough to catch up with Kakao T because both drivers and users are already accustomed to the platform,” a taxi industry source said.
The partnership had drawn considerable attention in the mobility industry, given the two companies' respective strengths.
Although Uber is a major player in the global ride-hailing market, it has struggled to compete in Korea. Kakao Mobility's Kakao T holds a commanding market share of around 95 percent in Korea.
A taxi with the logo of Kakao T, Kakao's taxi-hailing service, is seen in Seoul on Feb. 24, 2022.YONHAP
In 2022, Uber established a joint venture with T Map Mobility, but that partnership also ended three years later after failing to deliver significant results.
The partnership with Naver came as Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi met with Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon during a visit to Korea in 2024. The meeting fueled expectations of cooperation between Naver, with its mapping, navigation and autonomous driving technologies, and Uber, with its global mobility platform.
The two companies subsequently announced their membership partnership in September 2025. Their cooperation appeared to deepen further when they considered forming a consortium to acquire Baedal Minjok, commonly known as Baemin, in May this year.
Their relationship began to shift after Uber decided in July to acquire Germany's Delivery Hero, Baemin's parent company, without Naver. Naver also announced in a regulatory filing on Sept. 17 that it had abandoned plans to acquire a stake in Baemin.
“We considered acquiring a stake in Baemin but decided not to proceed due to changes in the business environment and other circumstances,” Naver said in the filing.
A passenger is aboard an Uber taxi in an undated photoUBER
Some industry observers believe the two companies could increasingly find themselves competing rather than cooperating. Naver has been expanding its membership program by adding benefits across multiple sectors, including streaming through Netflix, grocery delivery through Kurly and ride-hailing through Uber.
Uber already combines food delivery and ride-hailing benefits under its Uber One membership program in other countries where it operates Uber Eats. This has fueled speculation that Uber could similarly integrate Baemin's membership program with Uber One in Korea.
“Although the membership partnership has ended, opportunities for cooperation across various service areas remain open,” an Uber representative said.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
