RESEARCH NOTES

"Searches Increased, But Clicks Disappeared": The 20-Year Traffic Economy Shaken by Zero-Click

As AI summaries provide answers on the first screen of search results, the 'zero-click' phenomenon is spreading, where even if search volume increases, clicks leading to website visits decrease. Analyses successively show that when Google AI Overviews are exposed, the click-through rates of top search results decline, shaking the traffic-based revenue structures of media outlets and content publishers. While traffic from AI searches such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity is still small in scale, it is evaluated as high-involvement traffic with long dwell times and high conversion quality. In South Korea, Naver maintains its search market share, but user information-seeking behavior is shifting toward generative AI, prompting Naver to also pivot its strategy toward AI briefings. Ultimately, the core issue is how to provide financial compensation and rewards to the media companies and creators who produced the information when AI utilizes their content to generate answers.