Naver Whale browser user agent
Whale is a Chromium-based web browser developed by Naver and widely used in South Korea. Its user-agent string follows the Chromium layout — Chrome and Safari compatibility tokens included — with an added Whale product token that identifies it. Matching that token attributes traffic to Whale rather than to generic Chrome.
What this means
Naver Whale is a desktop and mobile browser from the Korean internet company Naver. It is built on Chromium, so it inherits Chrome's engine and the standard compatibility tokens. The Whale product token is what tells it apart from plain Chrome.
Because it carries the inherited Safari token like every Chromium browser, simplistic detection can mislabel it. Match the Whale token first for correct attribution.
How it appears
The user agent uses the familiar Chromium structure: a Mozilla/5.0 prefix, a platform block, an AppleWebKit token, a Chrome version token, a Safari compatibility token, and a Whale product token. Mobile builds add a Mobile token plus an Android or iOS platform block.
Match on the stable Whale product token, not a fixed version, because the version advances with releases. The full string is a claim and can be copied, so do not treat it as proof of identity.
- Product token: Whale (version suffix changes)
- Carries inherited Chrome and Safari compatibility tokens
- Most common in South-Korea-facing traffic
How it appears in analytics and logs
A Chromium-style user agent carrying a Whale product token indicates Naver's Whale browser. It is a real human browser, most common in Korea-facing traffic, and should be counted as a human visit.
Diagnostic use case
Attribute South-Korean browser traffic to Naver Whale instead of generic Chrome, and keep regional browser mix accurate in analytics.
What WebmasterID can help detect
WebmasterID recognises the Whale product token as its own browser family rather than collapsing it into Chrome, so Korea-market browser share is visible without manual log work.
Common mistakes
- Collapsing Whale into generic Chrome and losing Korea-market browser detail.
- Mislabelling Whale as Safari due to the inherited Safari token.
- Matching a specific Whale version rather than the stable product token.
Privacy and accuracy notes
The Whale token only reveals the browser family. It contains no visitor identity. WebmasterID treats it as coarse browser context, never as a personal identifier.
Related pages
- QQ Browser user agent
QQ Browser is a Chromium-based web browser developed by Tencent and widely used in China. Like other Chromium-derived browsers, its user-agent string carries the standard Chrome and Safari compatibility tokens together with a QQBrowser product token that distinguishes it. Recognising that token helps you attribute traffic to QQ Browser rather than to generic Chrome.
- Browser user agents: how to read them
A browser user-agent string packs several tokens into one line: a legacy Mozilla prefix, a rendering-engine signature, the platform, and the browser itself. This page explains each part so you can read a UA without over-reading it, because the contents are client-controlled and can be copied by any client.
- User agent sniffing pitfalls
User-agent sniffing means changing site behaviour based on substrings in the User-Agent header. It is fragile: it misfires on new or unexpected browsers, breaks as user agents are reduced, and is easily defeated by spoofing. Feature detection and Client Hints are more robust approaches for most cases.
- Privacy-first analytics
Regional browser mix as coarse context, without profiling.
Sources and verification notes
- MDN — User-Agent header structureChromium UA layout; Whale product token observed in the wild, version not pinned.
Last reviewed 2026-06-24. Facts are checked against primary/official sources where available; uncertain specifics are marked “Data not yet verified” rather than guessed.