Naver’s cloud-based digital twin platform has been officially adopted as a national standard platform by the Saudi Arabian government, marking a significant milestone approximately three years after the company secured the digital twin construction project for major Saudi cities in October 2023.
Team Naver announced on the 20th that its digital twin platform received official approval from Saudi Arabia’s Digital Government Authority (DGA) as a platform for municipal governments. In response, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Municipalities and Housing has issued an official directive recommending that all municipalities prioritize the adoption of Team Naver’s platform when pursuing smart city projects.
The directive instructs municipalities to give priority consideration to Team Naver’s platform when undertaking digital twin initiatives, aiming to prevent redundant investments among local governments and unify technical standards and methodologies at the national level. The Saudi government envisions connecting digital twin and digital urban planning initiatives across all local governments into a single, nationally coordinated framework.
Team Naver’s digital twin platform reconstructs the physical appearance of cities as 3D models and integrates them with real-world urban data, supporting a wide range of municipal administrative functions—from urban planning and disaster response to terrain analysis. The platform enables view corridor analysis and solar exposure simulations for specific areas during urban development planning, and can run flood simulations based on historical flood records and urban waterway data to identify high-risk zones in advance.
Naver secured the digital twin platform construction project from Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Municipalities and Housing in October 2023, valued at $100 million (approximately 140 billion won). By 2025, the company completed implementations across three cities: Mecca, Medina, and Jeddah. The total modeled area spans 6,800 square kilometers—more than 11 times the size of Seoul—with over 920,000 buildings rendered in digital space.
A Springboard for Expansion Across Saudi Arabia
With this national standard designation, Naver can now accelerate platform exports to other municipalities throughout Saudi Arabia. Under the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing’s directive, all municipalities must prioritize Naver’s platform when launching smart city initiatives, and a framework for sharing data and operational expertise among local governments will also be established.
To strengthen its local presence, Naver established a joint venture, Naver Innovation, with Saudi Arabia’s National Housing Company (NHC) in May of last year. Building on this approval, the company plans to deepen collaboration with the Saudi government and local partners while advancing its digital twin technology tailored to the Saudi market.
Chae Seon-ju, Naver’s Head of Strategic Business and Chairwoman of Naver Innovation, said: “This national standard adoption is highly significant because it validates not only Team Naver’s technological capabilities but also the proven results and trust we have built on the ground. We will leverage this as a springboard to apply Team Naver’s technology portfolio—including digital twin, artificial intelligence, and cloud—to urban infrastructure development across Saudi Arabia, and further solidify our position as a key technology partner driving digital transformation in the Middle East.”