Papago Trend: how to read the Top 100 popular products and places in Korea

Since October 19, 2026, Papago's Trend tab ranks the 100 products and 100 places travelers look at most. How it works, and why to read it with some distance.

Updated 31 October 2026 · Dari team · 2 min read

Machine translation from French, being reviewed. Read the French version (reference)

Contents

What Trend offers
How the ranking is built
Its limits
What this means for you
In Dari
Sources

_Traduction automatique / Machine translation_

Planning a trip to Korea and unsure what to buy or where to go? Since October 19, 2026, Naver's translation app Papago has a Trend tab that ranks the 100 products and 100 places travelers look at most. Here is what it shows, how the ranking is built, and why it is worth reading with some distance.

What Trend offers

Naver announced on October 19 that it had added Trend to the Papago app (Naver press release, echoed by Digital Today and Edaily). You open it with the Trend button at the top right of the home screen, when the phone's language is not Korean.

Products: a TOP 100, a Rising list (products gaining popularity) and Beauty, Food and Health sections. Opening a product gives you an AI summary ("AI Briefing") in the phone's language, with links to blogs and to Naver Shopping for reviews.
Places: a TOP 100, a Rising list and Hot Spots by area: Myeong-dong, Hongdae, Seongsu, but also Jeju and Busan. A place page shows opening hours, location, menu and Naver Place reviews, translated, with direct links to Naver Map directions and reservations.

How the ranking is built

It is neither a vote nor sales data. According to Naver, Trend relies on image translation data: the products and places that visitors from abroad photographed to have them translated in Papago (Naver, Digital Today). The more a product or place is photographed, the higher it climbs.

That is a useful idea: you see what other travelers actually came across, Korean label in hand, rather than what a brand pushes.

Its limits

It measures curiosity, not purchases. CBC Globe notes that frequent use of image translation does not necessarily lead to a purchase or a visit, and that it remains to be seen how this interest turns into real spending.
The method is not detailed. In the articles we read, Naver does not say which period is measured or how many users are involved. A product whose packaging is entirely in Korean has more reasons to be photographed than one in English: this is a deduction, not a published figure.
Languages are limited. Trend is available in English, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. With any other foreign language it appears in English. If the phone is set to Korean, the button does not appear.
Reviews come from the Naver ecosystem (blogs, Place, Shopping). Prices and hours may have changed: check them on the spot.

What this means for you

Before leaving, browse the places TOP 100 to spot neighborhoods to explore, then compare with other sources before booking anything.
On site, keep Trend for inspiration and image translation for decisions: photograph a product label to read its ingredients before buying.
For health or beauty products, the AI summary does not replace reading the label or a pharmacist's advice.
For places, use the Naver Map link for directions, and check the closing time before you go.