Liner, a generative AI service from a South Korean startup, has achieved an impressive feat by securing the 4th position in a ranking of generative AI services chosen by the world’s largest venture capital (VC) firm. According to the list unveiled by Silicon Valley-based Andreessen Horowitz on Mar. 13, Liner follows closely behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Character.AI, making it the only Korean service to make it into the top 50.
“Among the so-called newcomers, those highest ranked include Liner, an AI research copilot,” Andreessen Horowitz said in the report.
The recognition puts Liner ahead of other notable AI products such as Claude, an AI chatbot invested in by Amazon and Google, which ranked 10th, and Midjourney, an image-generating AI, which secured the 14th position. Character.AI, claiming the 3rd spot, specializes in creating AI chatbots capable of conversing with historical figures or movie characters, garnering popularity among young demographics in the United States.
Founded by Kim Ji-nu and Woo Chan-min while studying at Yonsei University in 2015, Liner initially introduced a ‘highlighter’ feature, allowing users to mark and save information from webpages. With the emergence of ChatGPT, Liner amalgamated its accumulated data from the highlighter function with ChatGPT to unveil two new AI assistants last year: ‘Liner Copilot’ and ‘Liner AI Workspace.’ Leveraging the data collected through the highlighter function, Liner can now provide personalized responses to user queries.
The company explained that its services distinguish it from other AI chatbots by transparently indicating the sources of responses, fostering a higher level of trust among users. The company boasts a user base spanning over 220 countries, with approximately 90% of its users located overseas.
Andreessen Horowitz disclosed that the ranking was updated in January with fresh data since their September assessment last year. In this ranking, QANDA, developed by the Korean EduTech startup Mathpresso, secured the 19th position. However, Naver’s generative AI services, CLOVA X and Cue, introduced last year, did not make it to the list of top performers.
