www.ica.or.kr March~April 2006 (ISSUE 18) Special Report Internet Portal Sites in Korea Review Korea Mobile Communications in 2005 Marketing & Strategy Focus on LBS Industry Hwiyoung Chae International Cooperation NHN CEO Agency for Korea IT Publisher’s Column IT Korea journal March~April 2006 1 Booming Internet Portals Soon to Go Global That Korea is the world’s broadband leader is organized into sections by media types. The video no longer an arguable fact. The internet wave, search, a feature that has recently been added on, is sweeping across Korea since the 1990s, has made it generating a tremendous buzz, and setting a whole- into the world’s most networked nation. Korea’s new trend in the worldwide search market. reputation is especially peerless in online gaming. Korea’s state-of-the-art mobile infrastructure Needless to say, this amazing internet boom could technology provides its search portals yet another not have been possible without Korea’s advanced platform with a potentially vast market. The wide Sunbae Kim broadband environment. Meanwhile, Korean penetration of mobile phone, PDA and other wire- ICA President internet users, savvier than their counterparts else- less devices in the country has been accelerating where in the world, are also more demanding growth in its wireless portal market in recent years. when it comes to service quality. Korea’s hard-to- Many Korean portals, judging the time now ripe for please consumers were indeed instrumental in overseas expansion, are laying out the game plan. taking the country’s internet industry to its present Heavyweights like Naver and SK Communications heyday, providing sticks as well as carrots to spur have already opened or are in the process of R&D and force innovations in businesses. Credit opening subsidiaries in Japan and China, with far- should also go to Korea’s highly competitive ther-flung regions like North America and South- internet portals, who knew how to offer services east Asia also joining the expanding list of these best suited to the palette of Korean consumers. companies’overseas markets. The bevy of services offered by these portals is Korea’s online game portals enjoy a similarly vast and immensely varied. Services are provided overwhelming edge. Its online gaming industry, in as many as 12 categories, from community, light-years ahead of China and developing coun- search, news and blog (including mini home pages) tries, also leads the US and Japan, which are techno- to email, reference search, shopping, entertainment, logically behind Korea by as much as two years. banking, children’s community, games and Korea-made online games currently capture over women. This type of all-around search service is half of the Chinese market and leading shares in what they call Korean-style integrated search. Japan and Southeast Asian countries. SONY and Search services were first introduced in Korea Microsoft, the two titans of the global video game around 1995. A mere 10 years later, Korean portals system market, keen on bundling their next-gener- have edged out global giants like Yahoo and ation systems with Korean online games, are cur- Google, capturing a leading share of the domestic rently soliciting Korean companies for partnership market, and are now staking claims to territories arrangements. overseas as well. The world’s first-ever commercial rollout of The so-called Korean-style integrated search is portable internet service is due shortly in Korea. unlike anything we have known before, with no Meanwhile, new internet access environments precedent anywhere in the world. Search hits, dis- such as IPTV and wireless internet are hitting the played by relevance and in a manner that is easy to market one after another; these developments are view, include results obtained from searching likely to further leverage the competitiveness of through user-created content as well. This method Korean internet portals both at home and abroad. is distinct from Google for instance, which draws Hopefully, the day will soon come when its competitiveness chiefly from the size of its data- people across the world can benefit from Korea’s bases. Korean search portals return not just web new-concept services. page hits, but also music and video files, and news and dictionary entries matching the query, and their display style is highly user-friendly, with hits 2 Contents IT Korea journal March~April 2006 Publisher Sunbae Kim Senior Advisor Sangwoong Huh Consultant Joonsang Cho, Joohyun Seong Editor Stanley Park Photograph Editor Hongkyu Kang Associate Reporter Woosung Shim, Jongyul Kim Kwangyeol Choi, Taegyun Kim Ilgon Lim Design Director Juneyoung Seo Marketing Manager Bob Chang Associate Manager Joonpyo Hong, Myunghee Kim 3 MIC&ICA News Translation 10 Cover Story / Hwiyoung Chae, NHN CEO PanTransNet Homepage: www.pantrans.net 12 Special Report Published by ICA � Current Status of Internet Portal Sites in Korea (International Cooperation Agency for KOREA IT) � Game Portals 2F, Sejongno Daewoo Building, Naesu-dong, Jongno-gu, � Introduction to Major Portal Sites Seoul, Korea E-mail: [email protected] 31 Korea’s Greatest Technologies / Cheomseongdae Observatory Homepage: www.ica.or.kr Tel: 82-2-2022-1477 32 New Products Fax: 82-2-2022-1499 38 Global ICT Company in Korea / Cisco Systems Editorial Design & Printed by ittn Homepage : www.ittn.co.kr 40 Promising Korean Companies / I-ON Communications 42 Marketing&Strategy / Focus on LBS Industry 48 Data Bank 52 Review / Korea Mobile Communications in 2005 58 Market Trends / Big3 Players in Korean Cell Phone Market 61 Exhibition / 3GSM 64 Industry News IT Korea journal March~April 2006 MIC&ICA News 3 IT Cooperation between Korea MIC and India Improves image which introduces the National future Ubiqui- tous Society. Image of President Kalam also Dynamic experienced future Ubiqui- u-Korea tous living and was amazed by On January 19, the MIC announced its the IT develop- plan to invest 8 billion won in various pro- ment of Korea jects to bridge the international digital divide. while he was The ministry plans to actively participate listening to the in such projects in order to play its part in Abdul Kalam, President of India who explanation of Minister Chin. the development of international society visited Korea on the invitation of Presi- After his visit, President Kalam said and to become a leading IT country by dent Moohyun Roh, experienced the that he had“ the opportunity to confirm improving its national image as dynamic u- ‘Ubiquitous Dream Exhibition Hall’ that Korea’s IT technology is the world’s Korea. which demonstrates Korea’s high-tech IT best and that combined with India’s With the first program, the ministry technologies and services. Under the guid- world’s best SW technology, both coun- plans to invite 250 government officials ance of Minister Chin, President Kalam tries can reap the best out of IT sector and opinion leaders from the selected signed the e-guest book and watched a 3D cooperation”. countries and support the operation of the UN ESCAP ICT Development Center in order to propagate widely Korea’s infor- mation society model. MIC strengthens For this year’s invited training program, the National Information Society Develop- IT cooperation with Africa ment and Mobile Strategy Development curriculum will be greatly improved, and the MIC invited 11 ambassadors of Africa Chin, ambassadors of Africa held the IT training program will be tailored to the char- on February 23 and held a meeting with Cooperation Meeting with Vice Minister acteristics and needs of the guest nations. the Minister to discuss IT cooperation Junhyong Rho. In addition, 300 Internet Youth Corps between Korea and Africa and also held Through his opening remarks, Vice volunteers will be sent to more than 30 an IT Cooperation Meeting with the Vice Minister Rho stated that he hopes IT countries in South and Latin America, the Minister of Information and Communi- exchange and cooperation be strength- Middle East, and Asia to improve the infor- cation. ened and that Korea's successful experi- mation access environment in developing Minister expressed his interests in the ences and know-how should be reflected countries and build Information Access national development strategies of 11 in the IT development strategies of Centers in two countries. African economies based on IT and said African economies. He also mentioned In order to extend IT cooperation with that if IT technologies and services such as that he wishes both Korea and Africa South and Latin America and the Euro- Korea's Broadband, WiBro and e-Govern- lead the 21st century knowledge-infor- pean countries, IT Cooperation Centers in ment are customized to Africa, each coun- mation society through mutual develop- Brazil and Turkey will be built in addition to tries IT infrastructure can be enhanced in ment. the existing ones in Mexico and Chile. The the near future. He also emphasized that On the other hand, African ambas- centers will support inter-governmental IT continuous interest and role of the ambas- sadors stated that they will actively make cooperation through joint research pro- sadors is important in the IT cooperation efforts to enhance IT cooperation jects, IT consulting, and technology/per- between Korea and Africa. between Korea and Africa. sonnel exchanges. After the meeting with Minister 4 MIC&ICA News IT Korea journal March~April 2006 Attraction of Oil Dollars with IT Korea forms IT Gathering with Ambassadors from Five Middle Eastern Countries IT partnership