Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Web 2.0 Asia :: Comparison between Asian social networks

Web 2.0 Asia :: Comparison between Asian social networks
March 19, 2008
"Benjamin Joffe of Plus Eight Star offers a great summary of leading social networks in Asia - namely, QQ, Mixi, Cyworld."

KT and KTF to Merge? | Korean Insight

KT and KTF to Merge? Korean Insight:

"The Korean telecommunications market has been shaken up of late given the news that the Korean Free Trade Commission (KFTC) accepted the acquisition of Hanaro Telecom by SK Telecom which has been protested by some of the other players.

This acquisition by SK Telecom who is already the dominant player in mobiles in Korea, has caused the other incumbents to rethink their strategy and plan responses to the situation. KT and KTF have renewed their habitual talks about a merger, given that KTF is SK Telecoms main competition. KT already owns a major stake in KTF, yet a wide scale integration effort would seriously affect the telecom landscape in Korea."

Nokia to Double Presence in Korea(The Korea Times)

Nokia to Double Presence in Korea (The Korea Times): "Phone World’s Giant Capitalizes on Both Sales and Manufacturing

By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter

Nokia is the world's superpower mobile phone brand, but it has been a nonentity in South Korea. The handsets are not sold here for various reasons.

The situation may improve for the Finnish brand this year. The three mobile service operators ― SK Telecom, KTF and LG Telecom ― have said they are working on plans to sell foreign-made phones such as Nokia, Sony-Ericsson and the Apple iPhone as early as this year. The government's regulations on mobile phones, which have acted as a non-tariff barrier to foreign manufacturers, are likely to be eased as well."

Korea's Information Society 한국의 정보 사회: Language and Culture as a Double-edged Sword

Korea's Information Society 한국의 정보 사회: Language and Culture as a Double-edged Sword:
James Larson writes:

"[...] Korean language and its Hangeul alphabet are also a source of nationalistic pride and can be viewed as limiting Korea's participation in the global internet. The most popular and dominant search engine in South Korea is Naver, a service that searches only Korean language (Hangeul) web sites and documents. The nation's immensely popular social networking site, Cyworld, failed in its initial attempt to penetrate markets outside of Korea. The new government of President Lee Myung Bak is facing opposition to its plan to improve English education, in part because some Koreans believe it will diminish appreciation of the Korean language."

INSIDE JoongAng Daily

INSIDE JoongAng Daily: "First gaming event to go intercontinental set here
March 14, 2008

The Seoul Metropolitan Government wants to position itself as a hub of e-sports by co-hosting the 2008 Seoul International e-Stars gaming competition in July."