SEOUL, December 18 (AJP) - South Korean internet company Naver Corp. is entering the final stages of its acquisition of Wallapop, Spain’s largest consumer-to-consumer marketplace, accelerating its expansion into Europe, industry sources said on Thursday.
Naver said the deal is aimed at strengthening its position in the global consumer market while enhancing services through the integration of its core artificial intelligence technologies.
Naver said on Tuesday that it will acquire about 562.7 million shares of its Spain-based subsidiary, NW Holdings, for 972.7 billion won. The transaction converts funds previously lent by Naver to the local unit to finance the Wallapop purchase into equity.
Once the share acquisition is completed on March 30 next year, NW Holdings will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Naver, effectively completing the financial procedures related to the Wallapop acquisition.
Founded in Spain, Wallapop operates one of Europe’s largest secondhand marketplaces, with about 19 million monthly active users. The platform offers a wide range of listings, from daily necessities to electronics and automobiles, and has recently expanded beyond Spain into southern European markets, including Italy and Portugal.
Naver has been building its stake in Wallapop in stages since 2021. The latest investment secures full control of the company, including management rights, Naver said.
The company plans to integrate its search, advertising and payment solutions into Wallapop, while applying AI technologies to improve operational efficiency and profitability. A key part of the strategy is the deployment of an “AI agent.”
At its DAN 25 conference in November, Naver unveiled plans for an AI agent capable of understanding user context and managing the entire transaction process — from product discovery and search to payment and delivery booking — through a single interface. Naver said its experience operating an end-to-end digital ecosystem could generate strong synergies when applied to a global platform such as Wallapop.
The acquisition is also strategically important from a data perspective, the company said. As AI model performance becomes increasingly standardized, access to large volumes of proprietary data is emerging as a critical competitive advantage.
Naver expects Wallapop’s extensive user community data and real-time insights into product trends to further strengthen its AI capabilities.
“The acquisition of Wallapop is a strategic choice to secure data and sustain long-term growth in the consumer-to-consumer segment,” Chief Executive Choi Soo-yeon, said. “By combining Naver’s technology with a global platform, we aim to create new value.”
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