Futurize Korea

The Korea Herald had an interview with the managing director of Google Korea Lee Won-Jin on the future for Google's Korean operations:

Realizing that localization is key to success, Google Korea set up a research and development center in early 2007 which has recruited and trained Korea's IT manpower and developed services catered to the needs of local customers.

With one year having passed since the creation of its R&D center, the head of Google Korea now hopes that localization efforts will bear fruit.

The company plans to roll out a series of services tailored to the needs of customers this year, said Lee Won-jin, the managing director of Google Korea.

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The JoongAng Daily visited Daum Communication's Global Media Center offices on Jeju Island:

The first noticeable area upon entering the 13,223 square meter building is a sleek cafe and an Internet booth, in which employees chat over coffee. At first glance, one might not realize that the building houses some of the most successful communications projects in Korea, from Agora to TV Pot, a video file-searching site. It’s here that the “Blogger News” citizen journalism service originates.

Daum, Korea’s second biggest Internet portal operator, relocated a large chunk of its operations its Daum Media and Daum Net Intelligence Lab departments to Jeju Island beginning in March 2004. Daum Jeju is one of three company offices the other two are located in Seoul.

Jeju will also be host to the Lift Asia 08 conference in September:

At the end of a decade during which the internet revolutionized our lives and organizations, the network is now moving beyond the browser, invading objects, cities, toys, cars or medical devices. Where will the next big changes happen? What are the world's most innovative people working on right now?

The first truly pan-Asia web technology event. A one day conference with carefully crafted speeches and panels featuring thought leaders and doers of Asia 2.0.

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The Telegraph newspaper visited Korea earlier this year to see how ubiquitous technology is being used in Korean apartments:

Key to this futuristic style of life is the "super internet", and the networking of appliances in the home and even on the street. Houses and offices are built with a synergy of construction and technology, and home-help robots are not uncommon. Convergence - where single gadgets carry out multiple tasks - is the foundation on which South Korea's high-tech homes are built.

The article also mentions the Ubiquitous Dream Hall in downtown Seoul. I'll introduce you to a new exhibition hall for Korean technology that recently opened in the Digital Media City development in Seoul.

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The Korea Herald reports on how Samsung Electronics and Sony Korea are embracing Korean bloggers to test out and market their newest products:

The Korean unit of Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. has held a dinner party, inviting about 100 bloggers, in line with the launch of its new laptop series.

"These bloggers are customers who have big influence on other customers' choices. An increasing number of customers take into account reviews by these bloggers and other user-generated content before making a purchase," an official at Sony Korea said.

Chang of Web 2.0 Asia referenced this trend with one example he gave during a presentation on media trends in Korea earlier this year:

A Korean blogger, who used to be a simple housewife just a few years ago, is now so famous that Austrailian government turned to her to officially promote Austrailian beef in Korea.

The Chosun Ilbo recently looked at some ethical implications of these freebies with some companies secretly paying workers with no disclosure to readers:

Businesses are developing more advanced methods. They may for example secretly sponsor popular bloggers and product critics as exclusive marketers. This is because consumers find the detailed product evaluations offered on blogs more reliable than one-line comments. These professional part-timers are mostly devoted bloggers who favor certain businesses, and they operate on incentives. They are paid W100,000-200,000 per entry, with additional pay in line with page view and citation frequency. The cozy relationship with their sponsor remains a secret for fear of triggering ethical controversy.

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The Korea Times looks at a new trend in Korea for authors to release stories on the Internet as a marketing tool to sell their printed books:

Veteran novelist Park Bum-shin posted his latest novel ``Cholatse'' on Naver, the nation's top portal, last year. Later, Hwang Suk-young put his new serial novel ``Gaebapbaragibyeol,'' which means Venus in Korean, on the same portal.

The two predecessors scored a big success in the off-line industry. According to Prunsoop Publishing, more than 30,000 copies of ``Cholatse'' have been sold. The publisher said that it is quite encouraging given the current climate in the publishing industry that is hard to sell just 10,000 copies of a local novel.

Jung I-Hyun's booklog (Korean) on the Kyobo Bookstore website.

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Along with the government, major Korean companies are providing their own support for the growing e-Sports industry. SK Telecom's chief executive officer Kim Shin-bae is the head of the Korea e-Sports Association and spoke at the recent e-Sports Symposium:

“With the efforts of Pierre de Coubertin, who founded the International Olympic Committee, the Olympic Games are a sports event beloved by the whole world,” said Kim.

“I hope people who take part in this inaugural meeting will play decisive roles, like Coubertin did for the Olympics, to take e-sports to the next level,” Kim added.

Korean companies are also sponsoring e-Sports teams to improve their brand and recruit new employees:

What do Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, KTF, CJ and STX Group have in common? Apart from being well known Korean-listed firms, they all operate their own professional e-sports teams.

Currently, a 12 professional game teams are registered at the Korea e-Sport Association, an organizing body of the nation’s e-sports, and 11 of the teams are managed by local companies, except ACE, which was launched by the Korean Air Force.

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Korea has joined with nine other countries form the the International e-Sports Federation (IeSF):

The member countries also plan to hold international e-sports competitions and expand e-sports culture worldwide.

IeSF is expected to play a central role in activating the online game industry, standardizing the sports rules and expanding industrial exchanges at home and abroad.

IGN recently sat down for an interview with Frank Pearce, co-founder and executive vice president of product development at Blizzard Entertainment to talk about e-Sports and reflected on it's development in Korea:

StarCraft's release coincided with the Internet café boom in South Korea. High-speed Internet access was available to everyone, and StarCraft provided compelling content for people to play. People found they could pick up the game and learn how to play relatively quickly. This, along with its fast-paced action, great balance, and visual clarity, made it a great spectator sport.

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SK Telecom announced that they would be the first Korean mobile phone carrier to have DRM-free music files through their online music store Melon:

SKT launched the DRM-free service yesterday on its online music store Melon, while KTF said it will start the DRM-free service next month at its music store, Dosirak.

LGT, the smallest operator, said it will offer the DRM-free service by the end of next month through its music store, Music On.

Under the new service, songs will cost pretty much the same. For a fee of 5,000 won ($4.93), a listener can download 40 music files. Raise that to 9,000 won and 150 music files can be downloaded.

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The Korea Times reports on the latest statistics for the Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) mobile television system in Korea:

The company had trouble securing ``killer content" with conventional television broadcasters reluctant to share programs when they are pushing their own terrestrial DMB services. TU Media says it needs about 2.5 million customers to be profitable, which is a nearly double its current customer pool.

It's not that the terrestrial DMB, which relies on advertising, is a smashing success on the commercial end either. The six terrestrial DMB providers, which include the three national television channels KBS, MBC and SBS, combined for just six billion won (about $5.9 million) in revenue last year.

Telecoms Korea reports on a new partnership between the satellite and terrestrial DMB providers to work together:

The interactive data service to be launched in the first half of next year displays video, sound and data service information on a single screen of a DMB device so that users can access various data services from the screen. For example, viewers will be provided with news reports and broadcasting information while they are watching mobile TV, and access wireless internet to download background music, past numbers of a series and coupons. A wide range of broadcasting-telecommunication convergence services will be available, too.

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The Korean government has announced plans to increase their cyber etiquette curriculum for younger students on issues like Internet addiction and copyright infringement:

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry and researchers who developed the educational curriculum last year said yesterday that the ethics textbook for second graders will contain a chapter on Internet etiquette.

Twenty-two pages on Web etiquette will be included in ethics textbooks and supplementary teaching material. The chapter “My Friend, the Computer” will cover prevention of overuse and addiction to the Internet, and teach students to use polite words on the Web.

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