Naver’s Fashion Revolution: What to Expect from the New Women’s Platform After MR. Service Ends

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Naver is shutting down its men’s fashion curation service, Mr. (MR.). The company plans a major overhaul, relaunching as an expanded fashion platform that will include women’s clothing and emerging designers.

According to industry sources on the 21st, Naver will abruptly end the Mr. service within Naver Shopping on the 31st. Launched in November 2020 targeting men in their 30s and 40s, the service will close about five years and four months after its debut.

After ending the Mr. service, Naver plans to move beyond its male-focused lineup and introduce a new fashion offering that covers women’s wear, multi-brand shops, and up-and-coming designers. “We are ending the Mr. service, which focused on men’s contemporary fashion, and preparing to reorganize it into a new service,” Naver said.

Mr. had concentrated on mid-to-high-end men’s contemporary brands and on offering full outfit coordination for office workers. But recently, vertical specialists like Musinsa, W Concept, and Hiver have strengthened their hold on the online fashion market with deep brand rosters and community-driven content. Those platforms have made discovery-style shopping—not simple product listings—their core competitive edge.

Naver appears to be revising its fashion strategy in response. The company is likely to pair fashion with its recently launched Shopping AI Agent.

If Naver expands its AI-based recommendation and discovery features—currently used mainly in digital and living categories—into fashion, it could offer personalized curation based on users’ tastes, body types, and style data. For example, if a shopper types, “Recommend a women’s emerging-brand dress around 100,000 KRW (about $75) for a weekend date,” the AI could analyze market trends and the user’s preferences to instantly propose tailored options.

As Naver broadens into women’s fashion and designer labels, it looks set to clash more directly with Musinsa. Musinsa grew on overwhelming support from men in their 20s to 40s and now shows a strong presence in women’s fashion and lifestyle through 29CM. Naver will likely lean on its massive portal search traffic, Naver Pay point rewards, and the Shopping AI Agent—among other conveniences and benefits—as competitive advantages.

A Naver spokesperson said, “New and trendy fashion brands are increasing, and consumer demand for them is rising. After ending Mr., the revamped service will introduce more diverse and reliable fashion brands and strengthen user benefits.”

Reporter Yoon Hee-seok