Empas.com is a South Korean web portal dating back as far as 1998. They became big with their cocky slogan: “If Yahoo can’t find it, Empas can.” Empas ranks five out of five on our list of (most visited) Korean web companies, However, Empas has lost ground against competitors as Naver and Daum, it seems that their strategy was unsuccessful. Currently, Empas is bought by another company, together they might make a comeback in search.

Some say that Empas has technological advantages above their direct competitor Naver, their search engine would be more effective in finding the right information, by use of full sentence writing. However, they serve as little as 4.2% of the Korean search market. Thus, being eaten by SK Communications group could bring the search engine a new opportunity, combining three important pillars together. SK Communications is owner of Cyworld, the biggest social network and NateOn, the biggest Instant Messenger Client in Korea. Together, they might be able to integrate services and directly target the competitors Daum and Naver.

IOL Technology (2008)

Korea Crunch (2006)