South Korea is the most connected country in the world, their network leaps far beyond that of Europe, the Arabic countries, China or the USA. It’s all part of their vision to create an “ubiquitous networked world”.
Well, I had to lookup the word ubiquitous, and found out that it means ‘everywhere’. In other words, they strive for an network that is available everywhere. South Koreans are addicted to the internet, they spend more time online then citizens of any other country. They use their network for online banking, gaming, media and socializing. On average, they consume about five times the amount of broadband used in comparison to any other country.
South Korean citicens are world wide leader in creating social spaces online and they connect back to the real world really well. This merge of online and offline activities is what makes South Korea, and especially Seoul a valuable place for researches. It is the ideal location to see the development of new social, economic, political and cultural uses of network technology.
For those of you wondering why South Korean’s are connected that much, consider that connectivity is the result for broadband, cheap network access, available everywhere. 88% of Korean mobile phone users subscribed to a 3G plan. The national fiber optic backbone operators experiment with 1000 Mbit connections to households and there is a wireless network based on WiBro technology, Wibro offers unlimited data packs, up to 18.4Mbit for $22 a month. Quite frankly, I would be connected all day long as well!
Bibliography
Picture by Superlocal
* Fitzpatrick, M. (2008, 05 15). Print Article: Korea is totally wired. Retrieved 05 18, 2008, from The Sydney Morning Herland: url
* Townsend, A. (2004). Seoul: Birth of a broadband metropolis. Seoul: Seoul Development Insititute.
- Introduction to the South-Korean web serie
- A profile of the connectivity in South Korea
- Why so little Korean web companies get ‘Techcrunched’
- Introduction to five popular Korean websites
- Social community Cyworld a trendsetter in E-commerce?
- Search engine Naver is best in localized results, example for others?
- Search engine Empas.com is ready for a comeback in Korea
- Daum: boring, but innovative in user generated content
- Why most Koreans stopped using auction sites
- Conclusion of the South Korean web profile serie
I hope you like that post!
Let's keep in touch @
Tags: Korea
Discussion
Get a Trackback link
2 Comments
Very informative article. Do demographics of age and income play as important a role in this perceived ubiquity as in my US? Maybe a country as culturally homogeneous allows for a more efficient cross-generational knowledge sharing, and allows for a broader and less fearful adaptation to new technology?
I can confirm that the Korean’s are less fearful of adapting new technology, an example of this on consumer level are the ’smarttag’ microwaves and they early adaption of HD. On government level, South Korea has invested largely in their railway (magnets) and network infrastructure (Wimax like technology)
But you raise an interesting question here, how does all this affect the cross-generational knowledge sharing?
Leave a comment