March 8, 2012 Industry Report Mobile Internet Daewoo Securities Co., Ltd. January traffic: NHN, Daum, and KakaoTalk led the way Chang-kwean Kim +822-768-4321 The mobile internet market is growing
[email protected] Mobile internet traffic data for the month of January confirmed that the mobile Jee-hyun Moon segment has become oligopolistic. However, monetization models for the segment +822-768-3615
[email protected] have just begun to take shape. This stands in sharp contrast to the situation in the PC internet segment, which already has well-established monetization models (e.g., display ads, search ads, and online games). We originally expected that innovative services, globally-popular social network services (e.g., Facebook), and social network games (e.g. CityVille, FarmVille) would create new trends in the mobile internet market. However, domestic mobile internet traffic has showed similar patterns to PC traffic thus far. It remains to be seen which model will become the key determinant for revenues. However, as the pace of development for mobile internet-related models has been picking up since early 2012, investors should keep tabs on related traffic. NHN topped the list of January mobile page views; Daum was the runner-up In January, NHN (naver.com) ranked first in terms of mobile page views (via both mobile website and apps), followed by Daum Communications (daum.net). And KakaoTalk (a messenger service) remained the overall leader in terms of duration. Among search services, NHN held the largest market share (58.8%) in terms of time spent, followed by Google (21.8%) and Daum (17.2%).