Archive for: January , 2009

The Waiguoren’s Archives : January 2009

• 31   Smartphone Battle Heats up in South Korea
• 31   IPTV, 궁극의 진화(IPTV, the evolution of the universe)
• 30  The identity of technology convergence and IPTV
• 30  The Real Meaning Of IPTV
• 30  Warner’s “Dark Knight”world’s first VOD service, is effective?
• 29  Cytogether: Cyworld’s Social Action Network
• 29  Twittering and the Future of Social Networking in Korea
• 29  Korea’s Twitter gets acquired by Naver
• 29  Networking for President
• 29  Bandwidth Bone of Contention Among Mobile Operators
• 28  Korean Subway Trends Released
• 28  Strong growth for Korean mobile TV
• 28  Minerva case revisited
• 26  “hide and seek” of korea netizens before arrest of minerva ?
• 26  Hackers snoop on mobile phones
• 24  Naver Opencast lets anyone become an “information curator”
• 24  Voice over WiBro: 2009 in Korea.
• 24  WiMax Forum: 27.5 Million Indian WiMax Users by 2012
• 24  Korean top celebrity’s cell phone gets hacked
• 24  Companies and politicians deleting criticism from the Net
• 23  Korea’s passion for classical music goes online
• 22  KTF Korea launches location-embedded text messaging service
• 22  Korea brings homegrown open source to schools
• 21  Samsung splits in 2 divisions
• 21  Korea’s Broadband Penetration Now 6th in the World
• 20 No More Mandatory WIPI on Handsets in Korea
• 20 2009 Outlook of WiBro (Mobile WiMAX) Business in Korea
• 19  Not the focus of the blog, but Korean women and Korean girls continue to dominate the traffic
• 16  Foreigh IT Specialist to Get 3-Year Visa
• 14  WiBRO a White Elephant? I Think Not!
• 13  Internet Pundit ‘Minerva’ Arrested Amid Growing Online Censorship and Regulatory Concerns
• 13  Questions continue on the viability of WiBro
• 11  S. Korean engineers develop technology to make improved lithium batteries
• 05 Samsung Sells Over 10 Million Full-Touch Screen Phones
• 05 Samsung Develops World’s Thinnest TV
• 05 New KOTRA Foreign Recruitment Website Goes Online
• 04 Cyber War in East Asia
• 04 New Social Movements in South Korea: Netizens, Electronic Democracy, Social Protest and Democratization
• 04 Netizens in S. Korea: New Media and the Conservative Press
• 03 “Beauties Chat” panelist goes after netizens.
• 02 IPTV Era Begins in Korea
• 01 Korea RTV, A unique television channel under threat

Smartphone Battle Heats up in South Korea

Before the smartphone market in South Korea started booming in 2007 there was skepticism about whether there is enough demand from Korean consumers for internet-capable smartphones, given that they can easily have internet access at PC Rooms located within a five-minute walk in any city. After Samsung “Blackjack”’s great success in both of corporate and consumer smartphone markets and the abolition of the WIPI requirement, which will be active in April 2009, Korean mobile phone operators have been eager to expand their lineup of smartphones, especially including foreign handset makers such as RIM’s BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone.

IPTV, 궁극의 진화(IPTV, the evolution of the universe)

지난 금요일, 분당에서 개최된 ‘IPTV 서비스 및 기술 심층 분석 워크샵’에 참석했다. IPTV의 기술적 이슈를 다룬 워크샵인 관계로 기획자인 나에게는 조금 어려운 내용이 많은 편이었다.(전산학 전공임에도 불구하고 - -;)
결국 내가 듣고 싶은 것, 내가 이해할 수 있는 것들 위주로 머리속에 담아내려고 노력했고, 그 중 가장 기억에 남는 건 아래.

The identity of technology convergence and IPTV

Translation: Korean » English with Google Translate

Industrial Technology ,from the perspective of digital cable TV (DCATV) and Internet multimedia broadcasting (IPTV) to distinguish it from the beginning was not appropriate. Of course, communication law, telecommunications companies (telcos period), the broadcasting law, broadcasting companies (Total cable TV operators) to overcome the opposition of the association, that the broadcast platform to be able to do business, multimedia bangsongbeop Internet (IPTV) in the new legal system you’d need, though, to be flexible, even in terms of technology ‘DCATV for the’ and ‘IPTV for a mutual cross-to ban the use separated by very bisaneop  and Rain  is capitalism. If you have high efficiency and performance, IPTV can be used for DCATV chayonghae-related technology, will have the opposite for a long time.

The Real Meaning Of IPTV

Behind the acronym lies an expanding universe of communications possibilities. Alcatel’s president explains it all Alcatel’s president explains it all

Today, amid the hard-fought battle for the living room, the hottest topic in the world of communications and networking is the emergence of IPTV. Today, amid the hard-fought battle for the living room, the hottest topic in the world of communications and networking is the emergence of IPTV. But despite the growing ubiquity of the acronym, the true meaning and potential of the technology behind it is still largely misunderstood — and not just by the average consumer, but by many within the communications industry as well. But despite the growing ubiquity of the acronym, the true meaning and potential of the technology behind it is still largely misunderstood – and not just by the average consumer, but by many within the communications industry as well.

Warner’s “Dark Knight”world’s first VOD service, is effective?

Warner’s “Dark Knight”world’s first VOD service, is effective?

워너가 철수 선언을 한지 벌써 몇 주가 지났습니다. 그 사이에 다크나이트 블루레이 and DVD 폭풍이 치고 있죠. 전 뭐, 좀 있다 포스팅 하기로 하겠습니다. 뭐, 어쨌든간에, 워너의 DVD 시장 철수는 솔직히 그렇게 놀라운 일도 아니었죠. 일단 한국의 DVD 시장은 이미 다운로드와 경제사정이라는 두가지로 인해 완전히 붕괴한 상황이니 말입니다. 하지만, 워너는 새로운 방향으로 가는 듯 합니다. 바로 IPTV라는 시장 말입니다.

결국 워너가 메가 TV, 브로드앤TV, 그리고 나머지 한 회사(이름이 기억이 안 난다는;;;;) 와 “다크나이트”의 공급 계약을 맺게 되었습니다. 일단 방송 자체도 DVD와 블루레이 출시 2주 전인 12월 5일로 예정이 되어 있습니다. 헌재 워너 홈 비디오 코리아는 워너브라더스코리아 디지털 사업 본부가 되어 있는 상황이죠.

Cytogether: Cyworld’s Social Action Network

Recently I decided to take a systematically look at online social action sites in Korea, and whenever possible trying to arrange an informal interview with the sites’ manager(s) to gain a little more insight into their operations and also get a better general sense of the landscape for online social action in Korea. How is the internet bettering the lives of the less privileged in Korea, and how is it achieving social impact?

A couple of weeks ago, I netted my first site, when I had a chance to sit down and talk with Ms. Park Jie-hyun who is one of the manager’s of Cyworld’s Cytogether service.

Cyworld, for those who don’t know, pretty much dominates the online social networking space in Korea. Having launched in 1999 it boasts 22 million or over to a third of the Korean population as its members.

All things that go up must come down and Cyworld is no exception. Lately it has seen a noticeable decline in traffic, as it struggles to find the next generation of services that will appeal to the hyper internet-savvy Korean users. To add insult to injury, it has seen a string of failed launches abroad, due in no small part to its over-confidence in its platform and hence a failure to recognize and pay due-diligence to cultural difference in the way that users in different cultures use the internet socially. It has all but abandoned many of the markets it has entered abroad, and the US may soon be its latest casualty.

Despite its many ailments, one of the bright spots in Cyworld’s traffic is its online social action site, Cytogether or in Korean, 사이좋은세상, which literally translates to: “a world of good relationships” or more meaningfully, “a world where we get along”.

Please Continue Reading Complete Post HERE

Twittering and the Future of Social Networking in Korea

Ever since I moved to Seoul last year, I’ve begun to post to Twitter more regularly. It started as a means to stay in touch and update friends I left behind in the US. I expected people I know to follow my feed, however I really didn’t expect people I didn’t know to become followers. Who would be interested in my mindless ramblings?

When I received notifications that total strangers were following me, at first I was a little distressed… then intrigued… then somewhat comforted in a strange way. They started to respond to my updates. Here were people who discovered me through search, or through other followers, with whom I share a passing interest which may be that we are English-speakers living in Korea, or interested in technology, music, or even Firefox3 etc., who track my comments and with whom I could hold casual conversations……………..

…………….The dominant social networking site in Korea is Cyworld, and from stats, most of the traffic on Cyworld is between “Il-chon” or “approved friends/family”. This reinforced the notion that Koreans are very closed in their relationships, and prefer closed social networking sites like Cyworld to more open ones such as MySpace. The Korean version of Twitter, Me2Day challenges that notion to a certain degree. Here is a site, much like my experience with Twitter, where users form loose relationships with other users they “discovered” leading me to think that the internet is a greater enabler of social relationships than I thought. ………………………….Now that Cyworld’s popularity is on the decline, they are fishing for new ideas. They had a terrible launch of Cy2.0 which was supposed to Cyworld’s next generation but after a lukewarm reception, they hastily demoted to being a lowly “blog” application tab. They are also in beta version of a 3D service not unlike Second Life. I’ve contended for a while that it would have been in Cyworld’s best interest to move more agressively towards mobile, because that’s where all the action is occurring, by acquire a service like Me2Day and moving towards shorter, more casual sharing of thought and comments to complement its more established social networking system. Instead they created a service called Tossi which is similar but doomed to fail, lacking strong integration with Cyworld and more so because it’s a paid service (you have pay for data usage). This is due in no small part due to a rift between SK Communications who operates Cyworld and SK Telecom which is its parent mobile operator………………

Please Continue Reading Complete Post HERE

Korea’s Twitter gets acquired by Naver

Korea’s Twitter gets acquired by Naver

 

 

 Me2day, Korea’s leading microblog service, has been acquired by Naver. Here‘s the ZDNet news article on the acquisition (in Korean) and here‘s CEO Suman Park’s personal posting (also in Korean).

Me2day is a good service with many cool features (including mobile posting feature that’s arguably better than that of Twitter), but the greatest hurdle for them was Korea’s market situation where users hardly venture out of the portals to try new web services. The Naver partnership makes sense in that regards – if the service is great but is not getting explored by the many, why not bring the service closer to them? There is no doubt Me2day will see a huge spike in traffic once it’s made available to Naver users.

Read complerte Post HERE

Networking for President

A South Korean version of MySpace is emerging as a potent political force. How Cyworld is reshaping the country’s presidential campaign.

Miri Leung does all the usual teenage things online: she chats, e-mails, decorates her cyber home and buys the latest fashions for her avatar. But lately she’s also venturing into an area that most political candidates still dream about. The 18-year-old is going online to learn about political issues with her country’s real-life presidential hopefuls. “It’s cool,” says Leung. “It kind of makes me feel like [the candidates] are just like all of my other friends.”

Leung lives in South Korea, where candidates are making new efforts to jump on the cyber bandwagon and woo the country’s youngest voters. Their vehicle: a network called Cyworld, South Korea’s equivalent to American online social sensations like MySpace, Facebook and Friendster. Launched in 1999, the site recently catapulted to the No. 1 spot among Asian networking sites, hosting an estimated 20 million users daily and drawing in an estimated $146 million in revenue. (MySpace, by contrast, brought in nearly $200 million in 2006; Facebook a little over $100 million.)