Futurize Korea

Korean regulators are being criticized for allowing for the merger of Auction and G-Market which will give them almost 80% share of the online shopping market in Korea:

Some business sources say the FTC is too loose in its understanding of the industry, by overestimating the role of competition when the market is already showing signs of consolidation, unlike the agency's rosy expectation.

Since Auction and G-Market emerged as the two frontrunners, a couple of conglomerates have tried to flex their muscles in the rapidly growing industry only to hit the skids. This shows the entry barrier has already become so high, blocking new entries, according to experts.

SK Telecom and KTF are looking at ways to expand data usage by adding 3G modules to notebook computers and portable multimedia players (PMP):

Mobile-phone carriers like SK Telecom and KTF are bragging about gathering more than 12 million combined customers for their 3G services that promise larger options for video and data transfer atop higher voice capacity.

However, as the companies would reluctantly admit, most of their 3G customers, although attracted by the ultra-cool handsets, aren't ready to spend their money on anything other than voice, as their low data revenue attests.

The Korean government announced new rules restricting government employees from using commercial email services:

All government employees will be banned from connecting to commercial e-mail sites on their office computers starting Oct. 1 to prevent important government information from being leaked or hacked in the process of exchanging e-mails. Government employees can keep commercial e-mail IDs for their private use on their personal computers at home.

PMP sales continue to rise in Korea with the popularity of Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) television and videos downloaded from the Internet:

Unlike the sluggish sales of MP3 players, PMP sales have been increasingly significantly. The number of PMP sales is expected to reach 1 million in 2009, which translates to about 300 billion won in sales, more than a six-fold increase from 150,000 in 2005.

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