Working at Meganova, because sitting at home is a bitch

“Finally a holiday!” I yelled earlier, but soon I found out that sitting at home was not as good as I imagined in the first place, don’t get me wrong, I have enough work but I realized that I felt tired all day long and couldn’t get any work out of my hands; do you know that feeling? I decided to get back in the office, simply to regain business… Continue reading... | 2 Comments

Conclusion of the South Korean web profile serie

Enter the hyper connected society, Korea has an astounding 90 percent connected to the Internet with 3G and a nation wide coverage of a South Korean version of Wimax. What websites are popular over there, and does Korea have a web 2.0 scene?

To find that out, follow my first publised article on thenextweb.org.

 … Continue reading... | 2 Comments

Search engine Empas.com is ready for a comeback in Korea

Empas.com is a South Korean web portal dating back as far as 1998. They became big with their cocky slogan: “If Yahoo can’t find it, Empas can.” Empas ranks five out of five on our list of (most visited) Korean web companies, However, Empas has lost ground against competitors as Naver and Daum, it seems that their strategy was unsuccessful. Currently, Empas is bought by another company, together they… Continue reading...

Daum: boring, but innovative in user generated content

Daum communications is huge, they are the biggest operator of Korean websites and they also operate in China with 365ren.com, and in the U.S. with the acquired Lycos portal. The word ‘Daum’ is Korean for ‘next’, but at first sight, they might come over as another boring web portal aiming for sensational celebrity news, or is it?

Okay, Browsing to Daum.net feels like browsing through time at first. Don’t be surprised to see a banner in the middle of the screen, offering you a Daum car insurance, or other income streams in in-house finance or shopping products. However, Daum.net scores (40 million active users) with UCG (user generated content) and sensational news. Continue reading...

Search engine Naver is best in localized results, example for others?

We see increasing amounts of search engines popping up on the internet, they are using advanced algorithms to come up with better results. Not in Korea, at least not at Naver. Employees analyze, index and produces content for their search engine by hand. Even though this labor intensity, they count for 70% of the search queries in their country, leaving Google far behind. Naver, founded… Continue reading...

Social community Cyworld a trendsetter in E-commerce?

Cyworld is a social networking site, not big, and attempts to go abroad have failed in both Europe and Japan. Currently, they don’t even have an English interface. However, Cyworld got my attention because of their business model, and the generated revenue they receive from it.

While the majority of the social communities get their income primarily from ads, Cyworld demonstrates that a online community can run it’s business better then… Continue reading... | 4 Comments

Why so little Korean web companies get ‘Techcrunched’

Most Koreans are addicted to the web, I wonder, Seoul must be a breeding place for new web ventures? I approached Chang W. Kim, to get an idea of what is going on. Chang is CEO of the biggest blog site in Korea. He explains his views on European projects, the Seoul web-scene and funding in his region. Continue reading... | 4 Comments