In this 3-minute video interview, I talk about the impact of the Internet and new media on society, the candlelight vigil, and the fading of Cyworld. I look pretty nervous in the video, so take that into consideration :)

Yesterday, I came across an interesting article about the the Internet usage stats in Korea in 2008. (As you know, it's the end-of-the-year time and we're getting tons of statstical reports summarizing 2008, so it's good time for TechnoKimchi.)

So, to make it brief, you know that the top 3 traffic sites in Korea are Naver, Daum, and Cyworld. And guess what the top 3 search keywords for 2008 are? Yup. They are Daum, Cyworld, and Naver.

Wait a minute. Am I saying that people don't type in the URLs for those sites, but search for them to get there? Apparently so. Basically what this means is that Naver is the biggest traffic generator for Daum and Cyworld. It's like saying "most of Yahoo traffic comes from Google."

Indeed. Among other top 10 search keywords are gMarket (4), Auction (5) (gMarket and Auction are the top two ebay-like sites in Korea), Kookmin Bank (6), Yahoo (7), Woori Bank (8), and Shinhan Bank (9). Take notice the keyword ranking almost exactly aligns with the the most popular sites in Korea.

I've been personally watching some young kids at my church (around elementary school age) use the Internet. They actually do search on Naver for the names of sites they want to get to and get there by clicking on the links. I asked them, "why do you search instead of typing in the URLs?" The answers typically come in two ways: "Why not?" or "URLs?"

This is the power of the search economy. The fact that the top search keywords are Daum and Cyworld, not Naver and Cyworld, means it's the No.1. search portal Naver that sends out traffic to Daum and Cyworld, making them the greatest beneficiaries of their greatest competitor in Naver. Traffic means money, but apparently that's the cost Naver will gladly take.

Display ads are dying. URL games are dying. Newspapers are dying. The only thing that seems to be certain in the midst of economic downturn and flood of information is the efficiency of search engines. No wonder Google is the king no matter what.

(After reading through comments provided by Channy and Chang, I realized this is not a trend only unique to Korea but rather a universal one. Guess who's been behind, haha. Sorry, folks :)

Loic came to Korea for Open Web Asia and obviously he deeply understands what it means to have global presence on the Web: he's French, doing his business in the Valley, with lots of interests in Asia.

So here is my brief inteview with Loic. It's unedited, but the content is great :)

brought to you by

So, after months of preparation, we finally got together, to prepare even more for tomorrow. Most of the speakers and organizers were present at the meeting. Like many other conferences, it just feels really good to see those whom you only see online in real person!

For example, Gang Lu and I have been talking for over 2 years and we met for the first time today. Jason Calacanis, whom I sadly didn't get to meet in my last visit to SF in April, was such a great guy, as expected. I was able to hear many great stories from him and I was lucky enough to be able to offer him some insight as well. Andreas turned out to be one of the coolest and the most entertaining guys I've ever met. Loic was just as energizing as I envisioned him to be. What's cool is that guys knew about Korea a lot more than I thought. Tyler, in particular, enjoyed the "Stuff Korean Moms Like" blog, which is very rare to see unless you have that kind of Korean mom. :)

Honestly, one of the concerns I had for this group was that we wouldn't be too friendly and the conference would be too "corporate" and not-as-fun. But today, meeting with everyone simply blew away all of my worries. The group bonding was amazing and people were just friendly to one another and quick to greet each other.

We have a good number of registrants and are expecting a great day tomorrow. I'll do my best to live-blog from the conference tomorrow. Oh, don't forget that I'm one of the speakers as well. Should I go nuts and try to live-blog while on the panel? :)

If you want to follow the conference on twitter, http://twitter.com/openwebasia is it.

See you all tomorrow!

(more pictures)

Morever, we were lucky enough to catch up with two of our awesome speakers: Jason Calacanis, the fonder of Weblogs Inc. and Mahalo, and Loic LeMeur, the founder of Seesmic. Of course, they're not "Asian", but they give such great insight into the Web in Asia and what this conference can offer you. :)

I know it's kind of late, but if you're genuinely interested in Asia, don't miss out. The conference isn't the only goodie. Think about whom you can meet in person there. The speakers, me, Chang Kim, and many other Open Web Asia Workgroup members!

Oh, by the way, I becamse a speaker at the conference again. I don't think I'm quite at the same level as other speakers, so I'm just grateful and honored to be up there. I'll be talking about collaboration in Asia through the Web.

So, watch the videos below and click on the register button right away. (You can also register onsite on the conference day as well) Hope to see you all there soon :)

Many Korean web sites, ranging from internet banking sites to TV livecasting sites, mandate users to install Active X components (a small bit of extension program used by Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser) to use the service. Which means if you are a Firefox user in Korea, there are many websites that are quite integral to your life that you simply can't use.

For example, you cannot print public documents by accessing government websites on Firefox. Or, for that matter, you cannot even buy a Mac on a Mac - as the credit card transaction requires the installation of a security program that only exists as an Active X control for Internet Explorer. Want to buy a Mac from their online store? Get a PC.

-- Are you a Korean web user? You might have 100+ Active X's installed, Web 2.0 Asia

Professional Reporter #1: "Darn it, I've run out of ideas. What should I write?"
Professional Reporter #2: "I don't know. What are people saying around the Internet? Just report that they're saying it!"

·181 止まない雨は名無しさん：2008/08/22(金) 14:16:56 ID:ZZ1pO5uL0 - 다음이 승엽님이야

·182 止まない雨は名無しさん：2008/08/22(金) 14:16:56 ID:xJoecgtw0 - 흐흐흐흐 좋아좋아

·183 止まない雨は名無しさん：2008/08/22(金) 14:16:57 ID:NqciCIW30 - 아웃 하나는 딴거네

·184 止まない雨は名無しさん：2008/08/22(金) 14:16:58 ID:hDzCl3AY0 - 승엽 같은 것 바꿔

·186 ：止まない雨は名無しさん：2008/08/22(金) 14:16:59 ID:YTHpw0AI0 - 못 봐주겠군

·188 ：止まない雨は名無しさん：2008/08/22(金) 14:17:02 ID:qwIU3pyW0 - 그렇지, 하지만 유감인건 아웃카운트는 3개가 필요한거지.

·191 ：止まない雨は名無しさん：2008/08/22(金) 14:17:02 ID:wYzZC3bQ0 - 이와세에겐 뭔가 불안함을 느껴

·192 ：止まない雨は名無しさん：2008/08/22(金) 14:17:04 ID:gyZNfd2L0 - 벤치에 있는 일본선수들 위가 아픈 것 처럼 보여

·193 ：止まない雨は名無しさん：2008/08/22(金) 14:17:04 ID:YV6FbEP/0 - 이와세는 최고야

We just watced the game. We thought it was real cool. We feel great about it. And this is what Japanese/Chinese people are saying about the game on the Internet:
1) (some line in Japanese/Chinese) and (the translated Korean version)
2) (another line in Japanese/Chinese) and (the translated Korean version)
....
100) (another line in Japanese/Chinese) and (the translated Korean version)

Gain insight into the current state and future potential of the Asian web.

October 14, 2008 | Sheraton Grande Walkerhill, Seoul, Korea
in association with the 9th World Knowledge Forum

Conference theme: The Social Web

Social has been a game changing development of the internet industry and the social web is an area where Asia has its own strength and vibrancy. Asian countries have a distinct internet cultures and market players, so informative and educational cross-country comparisons can be made.

What is Open Web Asia?

The first truly pan-Asia web technology event. A one day conference with carefully crafted speeches and panels featuring thought leaders and doers of Asia 2.0.

Why attend?

The gathering of thinkers and doers from Asia and beyond is a unique opportunity to learn about Asia's most astonishing web successes and best practices from online communities, e-commerce, mobile web ecosystems and more! This will also provide unique intelligence on approaching the booming Asian markets.

Not only that, plenty of networking opportunities offer the potential for valuable connections with both Asian and Western web industry movers and shakers.

Who should attend?

Technology executives, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists and anyone looking looking to learn from or with a stake in the development of the web industry in Asia.

Confirmed speakers

Confirmed speakers include some of the most experienced and knowledgeable people from the Asian internet industry and a selection of business leaders and thinkers from outside the region.

James W Kim CEO of Yahoo!'s Korea Region	Andreas Weigend Consultant and Lecturer	Loic Le Meur Founder and CEO, Seesmic	Kent Lindstrom Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, Friendster

Jimmy Kim Executive Vice President, Nexon Corp.	Bill Wang VP of Overseas Business, Perfect World	Kevin Day CEO, Comsenz	Arthur Chang VP of Global Sales, Alibaba

All speakers »

Here are some of the more notable excerpts from his speech: (via AFP)

Lee, grappling with IT-inspired mass protests over his decision to resume US beef imports, bemoaned the "spread of falsehoods" via the Internet in a speech to an OECD ministerial meeting on information technology.

"The Internet economy is expediting the development of a knowledge-based society, thus leading to new economic growth and job creation," he said.

Lee also called for the Internet to "be a space of trust. Otherwise, the force of the Internet could turn out to be venomous rather than beneficial."

He also noted that the system is still out of the reach of 80 percent of the world's people and pledged Korea's efforts to redress the situation. "The Internet gap is bound to lead to a socio-economic cleavage between individuals and nations, and the gap will be ever-widening."

Now, one particular phrase I paid attention to was "venomous rather than beneficial". A better translation of what he said is actually "poison rather than cure."

I believe that's his honest stance on the Internet that it's just powerful and could go either way. He's even created the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, so I'm sure he does believe in the power of the Internet for economy growth.

But, apparently he views the Internet more as poison and than cure at this moment. Well, at least for himself. Just few hours before he gave the speech, the CEO of Afreeca.com was arrested. Remember Afreeca? That was the citizen broadcasting station for many Korean people. You might go "What? President Lee let the CEO of Afreeca arrested to kill the freedom of speech? I thought South Korea was a well-established democratic country!"

Well, to be fair, let me explain more. Moon Yong Sik is the CEO of Nowcom, which runs a Web-disk service as well was Afreeca. Moon was actually arrested with copyright violation charges because of the Web-disk service. A Web-disk service is basically an unlimited file-uploading and file-sharing service where you can basically upload/download anything you want, like P2P, including movies, mp3s, porn clips, documents, ripped software CD images, etc. Obviously, there's been a long battle between the copyright holders and those companies. Nowcom isn't an exception; indeed, its services drew some of the most fierce debates regarding copyright issues in Korea.

So what happened to Moon is quite legit. Can't argue with that. But here's the problem.

Why now?

I do believe there's a good chance that this was a pure coincidence. But, come on! And here's even more serious problem.

People are asking "why now?"

President Lee might have just offered another tool for people to use against him with. Again, it might have been coincidental, but ain'g gonna do any good to restore his reputation.

Protests are still going on with less fervor than before. The only thing left for President Lee might be "pick your poison" soon. The Internet is powerful and could go either way. So, please make it work good for you. And what Lee's doing isn't necessarily the right way to do it.

Before I go on to talk about the portal-centric Internet landscape in Korea as I said in the last article, I decided to write a post on a different topic because the portal topic seems to cover too many areas, so I'll probably need some more time to think through. But before that, I'll give you guys something juicy again. Namely, "How to be a broadcasting jockey".

That's what all these livecasting citizen journalists are called. By Afreeca, they are officially named BJs. They are also called Street Journalists. The question is how do you live-broadcast while out in the public?

The key lies in Internet ubiquity. People live-upload video content through WiBro. And the setup looks like this:

You connect to the Internet through your WiBro modem like I did hundreds of times in the past; you capture the scene live with your webcam or better-quality camcorders connected to your notebook. You run some Afreeca applications on your notebook. That's it. You have your own real-time broadcasting station!!

Remember this is only one example of what Internet ubiquity can do for your country. Now, imagine what could happen when you have this many people out in the street holding candles; hundreds of them are BJs.

Reuters has an excellent coverage on the topic (via Futurize Korea):

But in this country, one of the most wired and technology savvy in the world, the month-long series of gatherings has also been a valuable testing ground for the latest communication devices, gadgets and websites.

From high-resolution camera phones to instant broadcasting software and water cannon-resistant camcorders, the latest advances in communications were in evidence during the five weeks since the protests began.

Many demonstrators rely on Internet forums to get information on rallying points, weather forecasts and riot police presence. With powerful camera phones, they are able to shoot photos and videos that they can instantly upload on Internet sites thanks to high-speed wireless technology.

It wasn't even a year ago when I had the Joost-on-highway experiment. Did I imagine what's happening right now could happen in less than 10 months? Heck, no! So there's goes my lack of imagination. OTL.

There's a reason why this blog is taglined Spicy Thoughts on Digital Generation in Asia. :)

(Sorry about the long absence. I've been MIA for some personal reasons and I'm finally getting back to my old self. But for real, I'm back and got lots of stuff ready for you. Let's ride along!)

Say, for a little over a month, Korea has witnessed something that the entire humanity has never seen before; that is, digital democracy in its purest form. It starts with the Web and it ends with changing people's lives. Citizen journalism is the channel through which it's happening.

The impact of the "new media" on journalism and politics is something that's been discussed for years and years. We got amazing opinion leaders in Jay Rosen and Jeff Jarvis. Many talk about how Obama's grassroots ethos positively affected his victory. Sure, social networks and arousing young people to become more actively involved are the right way to go. But trust me, we have never seen anything like this before.

The story is very long and complicated, so I'm going to try to stay as brief as possible. President Lee Myung-Bak, who was elected with nearly 50% of the vote last December and who began his presidency in February, is currently getting under 25% support only. Here's the political background of what's happening, taken from Wikipedia:

Two months after his inauguration, Lee's approval ratings stood at 28%.^[25] Concerns over a possible threat to public health from US beef imports in South Korea in relation to the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement caused popular opposition to the Lee administration to grow. The government's original agreement with the U.S. had limited beef imports to meat produced from cattle under three years of age because younger cattle are thought to be at lower risk of contracting mad cow disease (BSE). This limitation was similar to the agreement between Japan and the U.S.; shortly after Lee's visit to the U.S., the agreement was altered to remove limitations on cattle age. Many Koreans considered this a betrayal, and there was talk of attempting to impeach Lee. Lee later said that a deal had been reached that may allow Korea to ban U.S. beef if it is found to pose a threat to public health...

How did it happen so quickly? This is the fun part. Lee is a very conservative guy, who still believes in "control". What he did was, when numerous protests broke out around the country, he basically ordered the media companies "not to report" to the people about what's happening. There were police at work, trying to stop the "peace candlelight" protests, or vigils now called; some police went quite violent, but none to be reported by major broadcasters, newspapers, Internet news sites, or magazines.

But we're living in the age of Web 2.0. Now people are in control. People that were there became citizen journalists - thousands and thousands. And the force of citizen journalism has grown so immense that basically nobody can stop it now.

The first site was an online discussion forum called "Agora", run by Daum, one of the largest portals in Korea. Citizens got mad at President Lee that they started an online signing of impeachment movement on Agora; within the next few days the number of votes/signs reached 1.5 million--CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT! Some of the articles written by citizens at the protest sites drew millions of views and thousands of comments, like EVERYDAY.

Bloggers were second to none in this, obviuosly. Some blogger protesters were detained at police stations. However, even from there, they kept reporting on their blogs using their cellphones. Obviously, there were new star bloggers born.

But more than anything, here's where I think Korea is awesome! People are gadget-gods. We have ubiquitous connections everywhere in Seoul. What do citizens do? They live-videocast the protests using their devices on Wibro. Afreeca, which used to be barely top 5 video services in Korea, let its users livecast from the protest sites. Basically, it got really popular and became No.1 video site in Korea just in days. Why? Because other services were scared of the political pressure from the gov't, while Afreeca wasn't. So more people flocked together at Afreeca and Afreeca has been living happily ever after.

(This video was actually recorded by a newspaper reporter; however, what you are seeing here is not reported anywhere on "mainstream" media. It was broadcast on the Net and drew lots of viewers, reaching millions.)

We also have an amazing story on how none other than OhMyNews was able to pull off something amazing on its video coverage:

As of June 6, some 34,000 viewers have contributed over 130 million won ($130,000) for the live Web casting. For many Korean expats working or studying abroad but who still wish to follow the drama in Seoul, OhmyTV was the only source available to them. They were the most frequent financial contributors of all, paying a disproportionate amount of money.

In summary, the lessons taken from the whole situation:

1. You just simply can't stop citizens from being reporters when they're motivated and equipped with technology;
2. No matter how much control or pressure are exerted on mass media, "new media" is the new king;
3. All these principles used in blog marketing, such as transparency, authenticity, and truth, are for real; if you look sketchy, you're gonna get caught. Millions are watching you.

Now, there's still one focal point on which the "I-want-to-control" guys can put pressure on the new media: portals. Many funny things happening with portals and how the new media is operated. More on this in the next post!

p.s. just a little disclaimer: I'm not quite a political person. I agree with President Lee on some of his policies and stuff. He and I also have the same religious affliation. However, when it comes to the way he deals with media, and esp. people, I just have blunt objections against his philosophy and actions. Just to clarify :)

(Google image search result on the keyword "pondering")

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