Living abroad? Think about your (future) wife!

Ask yourself this: What things would you consider if you had an opportunity to work abroad? For many top executives and engineers, its not only the job they are thinking about. The main challenge is usually their free time, wife (or husband) and family. Ask yourself the question: if I will work in this country how will my wife and family been taken care of by the company in… Continue reading... | 6 Comments

Video-conference with a former president

15th Korean president and Nobel peace prize winner Kim Dae-Jung visited us at the Korean Development Institute today. Amazing, what a circus! Our university is already surrounded by a 4 meter wall, and security posts. Today I noticed FBI style security guards on rooftops and entrances! The event was well organized, interesting approach on the day was that not all participants of the event were actually inside our school. With the help of video-conferencing, students… Continue reading... | 2 Comments

Comparing Korean gas, wine and other prices with Europe

It’s cheaper to live in New York, Hong Kong, Copenhagen or Paris then in Seoul. But not everything is expensive, taking a cab here four blocks further costs about 2 Euros, the same distance in Copenhagen or Paris would cost a lot more. Korean food is generally cheap, so are a lot of other things. The greatest price differences can be found in western and mainly European products that… Continue reading... | 2 Comments

Meanwhile, at the blind-Korean-GPS-marketed-witch-doctor’s house

I visited a very special practitioner on Friday the 22nd. A blind chiropractor called Mr Ahn, with a special approach. – for his diagnose, he touches certain body points, after which he gives lifestyle advice or prescribes natural medicines. The man has gained popularity, and people from all corners of Korea are lining up in front of his house. Interesting part of his popularity is the relation with GPS technology… Continue reading...

If you like the web, I bet you love South Korea too

This is the conclusion of my web series about the internet in South Korea, published on ReadWriteWeb and TheNextWeb.org two weeks ago; I put it on my blog for completeness of the serie.

That is, if you like to be connected to the Internet all day, while enjoying the fastest connections in the world! Enter the hyper connected society, with an astounding 90 percent of the country

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... | 3 Comments

A profile of the connectivity in South Korea

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… Continue reading... | 2 Comments

Introduction to the South-Korean web serie

During the next few weeks I will publish a series of posts about the South Korean internet market. I want to raise discussion about the trends, review web 2.0 websites and blogs and interview influential web 2.0 entrepreneurs from South-Korea.

The series will be brought down in three broad subjects:

1. The south Korean internet market (environment and trends)
2. Success stories from South Korea
3. What Western web trends are liable for… Continue reading... | 2 Comments

Flying to asia during the Olympics

Flying to South Korea is expensive during the Olympics in Beijing. My friend from Beijing told me that the prices are dramatically increased for every Asian country for that matter. In search of a solution, I asked businessmen/women from different nationalities where they fly with, after receiving some tips from Marc van der Chijs I found that Finnair introduces a direct line to Seoul that would be cheapest… Continue reading... | 4 Comments