Korean bloggers receive perks from electronics firms
2008/08/18 18:19The 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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