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.