Naver.com, the number one portal in Korea

Korean top actress in Naver.com ad

In the last posting, I described Korean internet industry as very unique. One aspect different from other internet markets is the portal. Although Google and Yahoo are big two in the world, they have just less than 15% market share in Korea. Then, who is leading the market? It is Naver.com, which has around 70% of market share.

It is not coincidence that Naver.com has become number one portal in Korea. Naver.com kept making efforts to satisfy Korean internet users. Then, Yahoo Korea, which once had more than 50% of portal users, didn’t try to keep their customers? Of course, they did, but its strategies were different from Naver’s. Yahoo tried to answer their customer’s request in a most efficient way, but Naver.com tried to entertain their customers.

A study says that internet users from western countries use internet mainly for improving their work efficiency or social network while Koreans use it for entertainment. In the sense, it is no wonder that internet traffic for online games is exceptionally high in Korea. Please note that the largest online game site in Korea is Hangame.com, which is an affiliate of Naver.com.

Another unique feature of Naver.com is ‘webtoon’, cartoons posted online regularly. One of the most popular webtoon, ‘The Voice of Mind’ by Jo Seok, is gathering more than 2 million visitors each episode. Jo’s webtoon appears twice a week on the Webtoon section of Naver.com and its reception has been hotter than a major TV series. Yahoo must have admitted that this kind of effort to entertain people has been effective. Yahoo Korea just launched its webtoon section last May.

Have you been to Korean web sites?

In Korea, internet is not only for the young

Welcome to Injae’s blog! In my blog, I would like to talk about the internet industry in Korea. I think it should be an interesting topic to you, students at Internet Marketing class, because Korea has one of the most developed internet industries in the world and it is very unique.

To most Koreans, the internet is part of their daily life. People buy various stuffs and book restaurants through internet, run their blogs, and enjoy online games. They are quite familiar with using internet. From 2002 to 2005, Korea had the highest high-speed internet penetration rate in the world. There are many reasons for this phenomenon. First, Korean government has kept proactive IT-friendly policies. From the 1990s, major cities started laying optical fibers under the ground and the new buildings were required to be ready for high-speed internet. So, when new internet technology emerged, Korea could adopt it very fast. Second, Korea has developed around densely populated areas. Most people live in tall apartment near the urban center, which is an ideal condition for FTTH (Fiber to the Home). Third, Koreans are receptive to new technology. Do you know that the world’s first MP3 player was invented in Korea? Before Facebook.com, Koreans already had a similar business, iloveschool.co.kr (Yahoo tried to acquire it but failed). After World of Warcraft, Lineage is the second-largest online game in the world, which was launched in 1998.

Korean internet industry is unique in that it is not consolidated with other foreign markets. That is partly due to the existence of local language Korean. They use independent character-set, Hangul, different from Japanese Kana or Chinese characters. Also, they had time to develop their own internet culture due to the advanced internet environment and their early-adopting nature. In the sense, it should be very interesting to observe what has happened and what is happening in Korea. Who knows? You may be able to predict the world internet market from the observation.