Saturday, November 24, 2007

[The Chosun Ilbo, November 20 2007] Korean Game Firms Failing in China

Korean online game companies operating in China are being driven out of the market they once dominated because of unsuccessful products and a failure to adapt to the local business environment.

According to the Korean Embassy in China on Monday, the Chinese online game industry has grown to 10 billion yuan in revenues, but Korean game makers have been quickly losing ground.

Korean game makers once prevailed over the vast market but their market share has dwindled to around just 10 percent. Even their business patterns have changed. Now Korean game makers develop new products in Korea and export them to China through Korean-Chinese joint venture companies.
[The Chosun Ilbo, November 20 2007] Int'l Press Watchdog Renews Censure of S.Korea

The International Press Institute has again called on President Roh Moo-hyun and his government to withdraw draconian new media policies which restrict media access to government agencies. The request, this year’s fourth by the media watchdog, came in a sternly worded letter on Monday. The IPI is an international gathering of journalists, editors and media executives from 120 countries around the world.

In the letter, the IPI said, “The IPI Board seriously considered placing South Korea back on the IPI Watch List, a list of countries in which press freedom has rapidly deteriorated. However, the IPI Board decided to wait until after the upcoming presidential elections in your country,” since “all major presidential candidates have promised to remove ‘the nails’ hammered into the press rooms by your government.” The letter was referring to a drive to merge the pressrooms at government agencies into a handful “media centers” and restrict press access to officials.
[The Chosun Ilbo, November 20 2007] Samsung, LG on List of Preferred Firms of Korean Parents

The Daishin Securities Research Center announced seven companies that parents hope their children will work for at a research forum on Monday. The companies include Samsung Corp., Hyundai Steel, Doosan Infracore, Korea Air, NHN, LG.Phillips LCD and LG. All these companies boast great potential for future growth and highly satisfied workers.

"If you want to know which companies will remain competitive in the future, think about companies that you would like your children to work at," the center’s director Koo Hee-jin said. "The seven companies have not only business models that will enable their sales and operating profits to grow over 15 percent annually for the next three years, but also governance structure that can ensure management transparency."
[The Chosun Ilbo, November 20 2007] NYT Reports on Korea's Boot Camp for Cyberspace Addicts

Korea may be the most wired country in the world in terms of Internet access but a leading U.S. daily says that has come at a price -- cyberspace addiction.

The New York Times reports that Korea is operating a boot camp as a rehab center to help Internet junkies kick their potentially deadly habit, which the paper says is possibly the first in the world.

The paper says Internet addiction has become a national issue in recent years as some users died of exhaustion after playing online games for days on end.

It describes how some kids skip school to stay online and describes the phenomenon as ''a shockingly self-destructive behavior in a country that's intensely competitive.''
[The Chosun Ilbo, November 19 2007] WiBro Frequency Named 4G World Standard

The 2.3 GHz frequency used by the Korea-developed WiBro technology was selected as the world's standard frequency spectrum for 4G mobile telecommunications at the World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva, Switzerland on Saturday. This means that Korean IT equipment makers will not have to produce separate WiBro devices for domestic consumption and export.

Developed jointly by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Samsung Electronics, KT and SK Telecom, WiBro is a wireless broadband Internet technology that enables high-speed transmissions of high-capacity data while on the move.

The technology was chosen as a 3G mobile standard at the radio assembly of the International Telecommunication Union last month, and will be developed into the 4G mobile standard.
[The Chosun Ilbo, November 16 2007] Seo Tai-ji Fans Celebrate His 15 Years in Showbiz

“It cheers me up to see you again, my idol Seo Tai-ji. I feel I can start again thanks to you. You greatly influenced my life when I was a teenager.”

“Dear Tai-ji. I come here again. I wish I could live here. I really miss you.”

Fans of Seo Tai-ji, the legendary Korean pop idol, left messages to him at the SEO TAI JI 15th Anniversary Zone at COEX mall in Samseong-dong, Seoul. It opened on Nov. 3 to commemorate, as the name suggests, the 15th anniversary of his debut. Seotaiji Company, the entertainment firm the singer set up, says the number of visitors topped 40,000 as of late last week, prompting the exhibition to be extended by six days to Nov. 18. Seo, who earned his nickname “Culture president” with his groundbreaking music in 1990s, has come back center stage.
[The Chosun Ilbo, November 16 2007] Seo Tai-ji Fans Celebrate His 15 Years in Showbiz

“It cheers me up to see you again, my idol Seo Tai-ji. I feel I can start again thanks to you. You greatly influenced my life when I was a teenager.”

“Dear Tai-ji. I come here again. I wish I could live here. I really miss you.”

Fans of Seo Tai-ji, the legendary Korean pop idol, left messages to him at the SEO TAI JI 15th Anniversary Zone at COEX mall in Samseong-dong, Seoul. It opened on Nov. 3 to commemorate, as the name suggests, the 15th anniversary of his debut. Seotaiji Company, the entertainment firm the singer set up, says the number of visitors topped 40,000 as of late last week, prompting the exhibition to be extended by six days to Nov. 18. Seo, who earned his nickname “Culture president” with his groundbreaking music in 1990s, has come back center stage.
[The Chosun Ilbo, November 16 2007] Samsung Stays Top Flat TV Seller for 7th Quarter

Samsung Electronics has maintained the top spot in the world TV market for a seventh consecutive quarter. ...

Samsung was the leader in the global LCD TV sector by both sales and volume, with an 18.4 percent market share by sales and a 16.8 percent share by volume. Sony and Sharp trailed Samsung in sales with 15.1 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively. By volume, SONY ranked second with 11.3 percent of the market followed by Sharp with 10.8 percent.
[The Chosun Ilbo, November 16 2007] Hynix Builds World's Fastest Graphics Memory Chip

Hynix Semiconductor said Thursday that it has developed the industry's first 1 Gb GDDR5 graphics memory chip. The new chip features not only the biggest capacity ever but also the fastest speed, enabling 20 Gb of data to be processed per second.

The new chip has data bandwidth of 5 Gbps per pin, making it suitable for processing complicated graphics information. In GDDR3 memory chips, each pin has maximum data bandwidth of 2.4 Gbps, and 3 Gbps for the GDDR4. In addition, the new chip is designed to work on just 1.5 V of power, meaning it can process a great deal of data quickly but consume minimal amounts of energy.

The world's second largest memory chip maker will begin production on the new chips in the first half of next year.
[The Chosun Ilbo, November 16 2007] IPTV Law Could Pass Before Year-End

The National Assembly is expected to pass a special law before the end of the year allowing Internet companies to broadcast TV shows using IPTV technology, or Internet protocol television.

The assembly's Broadcasting and Communications Special Committee's subcommittee on bill deliberations on Thursday reached an agreement on some difficult points in the proposed law. If the IPTV bill is passed at a parliamentary plenary session, Internet service providers like KT and Hanaro Telecom will be allowed to broadcast TV programs in real time like terrestrial and cable broadcasters. The committee plans to pass the bill at its meeting on Tuesday before submitting it to the floor the following Friday.
[The Chosun Ilbo, November 16 2007] Women Take Ang Lee's Latest Movie to New Heights

Korean women in their 30s are largely responsible for the unexpected success here of Ang Lee’s new film “Lust, Caution”, which drew some 385,000 viewers nationwide in the seven days since its release on Nov. 8. The 160-minute movie about the relationship between a Chinese woman and a powerful collaborator with the Japanese is being sold as an erotic film, with the phrase “uncut edition” suggesting provocative scenes that might have been excised.

According to multiplex cinema Primus, 60 percent of viewers in their 20s and 30s who have seen the movie were women who came with their women friends. A cinema staffer said, “Many women came to see the movie with other girlfriends rather than boyfriends.” In advance booking, women also outnumbered men. Internet film ticket reservation site MaxMovie said the proportion of men and women who booked tickets for “Lust, Caution” was 44:56 on Sunday, 38:62 on Monday, 31:69 on Tuesday and 24:76 percent on Wednesday, averaging 37:63 percent. The percentage of women is increasing by the day, partly because its star Tony Leung has a devoted female fan base.

Many women are drawn by the sex scenes between Tony Leung and Wei Tang, which are said to contain full frontal nudity. But that is not the only reason for its popularity among women, given how easy it is to access more explicit material on the Internet.

[The Chosun Ilbo, November 16 2007] Critics Decry Naver's Domination of Korean Internet

Korea's Internet empire NHN is dominating cyberspace at an alarming rate. Known best for its portal Naver, the company is sweeping core online business areas like gaming, community services and advertising armed with a near-monopoly share (70 percent) of the Internet search market. It has seen its sales grow 70-fold over the past six years since it began business as a start-up in 2000. It's expected to post W900 billion (US$1=W916) in sales and W270 billion in net profit this year. At one point its market capitalization even surpassed that of Korea Telecom, whose sales are more than W10 trillion.

But NHN's explosive growth has the Korean Internet industry shaking at its roots. As NHN tightens its grip on the market, small Internet companies either become subordinate to the giant or are eventually run out of business. "Small Internet start-ups are being undermined at their foundations as NHN scouts and hires talented workers," said Ahn Chul-soo, chairman of the board of AhnLab.
[The Chosun Ilbo, November 15 2007] SK Telecom Inches Closer to Hanaro Telecom Takeover

SK Telecom has been chosen as a preferred bidder to take over Hanaro Telecom, the nation's second-largest Internet service provider, Goldman Sachs, the sale's lead manager, said Wednesday. If SK is successful in its takeover bid it would mean the country's telecommunications market would be dominated by just three giants -- SK Telecom, KT and LG Telecom.
[The Chosun Ilbo, November 15 2007] Stars Win Suit Over Unauthorized Photos

Six stars of the Korean Wave including Jeon Ji-hyun, a heroine in the hit movie "My Sassy Girl", and actor Jung Woo-sung, who appeared in the movie "The Restless," were paid compensation from a movie magazine that used their photographs without permission.

...

The agency and stars filed the suit in June 2006 after Screen M&B sold their photos on the Internet and through mobile phone services in Japan. Publicity rights are the rights to use a celebrity's name and image for commercial purposes.
[The Chosun Ilbo, November 15 2007] Special Samsung Team to Sniff Out New Ideas

Samsung Electronics plans to launch a task force next month to search out promising new business ideas for the company. Tentatively named Samsung Emerging Businesses, or SEB, the team will be headed by the company's vice chairman Yun Jong-yong.

The exploration efforts by Samsung Electronics will likely ripple out to Samsung Group's other units. A Samsung Group executive said Wednesday that since Samsung Electronics is a core subsidiary, it will form the task force to take the lead in finding future business engines for the group. Korea's electronics giant has reportedly fielded a special team for the last few months studying how overseas companies explore new business areas.

The SEB will reportedly consist of 20 to 30 staff led by Yun. They will likely look into sectors such as bio-health, energy-environment, robotics and new materials. Yun designated those areas as future growth engines in a recent ceremony to mark the 38th anniversary of Samsung Electronics' founding.

[The Hankyoreh, November 21 2007] Samsung to reinforce status as global memory market leader: report

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. will consolidate its leading position in global markets for DRAMs and NAND flash memories during the fourth quarter of this year based on its technological prowess, a report forecast Wednesday.

According to the report by market researcher iSuppli, Samsung's sales of DRAMs and NAND flash chips, mostly used in computers and portable devices, respectively, will amount to US$2.34 billion and $1.71 billion in the October-December period.

In comparison, the report forecast that the world's No. 2 computer-chip maker Hynix Semiconductor would post $1.66 billion in sales of DRAMs during the same period, down from $1.81 billion a quarter earlier

[The Hankyoreh, November 15 2007] Samsung Techwin aims to become global leader in digital camera market by 2010

Samsung Techwin Co., a South Korean manufacturer of digital cameras and optical equipment, said Thursday that it aims to emerge as the leader in the global market in 2010 by focusing on sales of premium digital camera models.

Samsung Techwin, the world's fifth-largest digital camera maker, said it will also aim to sell 28 million cameras and post 3.5 trillion won (US$3.8 billion) in sales by that year.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Boot camp tries to bring Korea's cyber addicts back to real world - Independent Online Edition > Asia

Boot camp tries to bring Korea's cyber addicts back to real world - Independent Online Edition > Asia: "By Clifford Coonan
Published: 20 November 2007

The world's most internet-savyy country, South Korea, is hoping the short, sharp shock of the boot camp can help it to deal with a dangerous new phenomenon – Web addiction."

Monday, November 19, 2007

KBS WORLD

KBS WORLD: "Anticipation Growing over IPTV's Introduction

2007-11-18

Anticipation is growing over the introduction of Internet protocol TV (IPTV), a new and comprehensive network streaming service which can provide programs on demand and two-way communication..."

KBS WORLD

KBS WORLD: "The multimedia era and IPTV legislation of IPTV

2007-11-16

A special sub-committee of the National Assembly has reached an agreement on key issues of the IPTV legislation, providing momentum for the emergence of converged media. The IPTV service, not backed by laws, has so far been limited to video-on-demand, or VOD service. The legislation, however, will make the IPTV service complete with real-time broadcasting and other services. The bill will have to pass the plenary session of the National Assembly. The passage may not come easily, but an agreement at the committee level can be regarded as an important step toward legislation. It is expected that a full IPTV service will be made available in the first half of 2008 at the earliest. IPTV stands for internet protocol television. It’s a kind of interactive TV service that uses a broadband Internet network. The interactive IPTV service will be completely different from existing TV service which merely provides customers with passive viewing opportunities."