Cyworld
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Cyworld (Korean Hangul: 싸이월드) is a South Korean web community site operated by SK Communications (Korean Hangul: SK커뮤니케이션즈 or 에스케이커뮤니케이션즈), a subsidiary of SK Telecom (SKT; Korean Hangul: SK텔레콤 or 에스케이텔레콤). Literally translated, "Cyworld" can mean "cyber world", but it's also a play on the Korean word for relationship, so it could also mean "relationship world." It takes the concept of personal, virtual rooms similar to MySpace, CokeMusic, and AeroWorld which is still in service in the USA to promote their products.
Members cultivate on- and off-line relationships by forming Ilchon (Korean Hangul: 일촌, Hanja: 一寸) buddy relationships with each other through a service called "minihompy", which encompasses a photo gallery, message board, guestbook, and personal bulletin board. A user can link his/her minihompy to another user's minihompy to form a buddy relationship. It is similar to U.S. based Facebook and MySpace websites. It has been reported that as much as 90 percent of South Koreans in their 20s[1] and 25 percent of the total population of South Korea[2] are registered users of Cyworld, and as of September 2005, daily unique visitors are about 20 million.
Today, Cyworld operates its site in the United States, China, Japan, Taiwan as well as South Korea
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[edit] Features
Buddy Relationships / Ilchon (Korean Hangul: 일촌, Chinese Character: 一寸)
Cyworld revolves around buddy relationships. These relations are formed when one member sends an invite to another member and the invite is accepted. Buddies can then view each other’s minihompy and exchange contact information.
For close friends, you can set up a special relationship (Korean Hangul: 관심일촌, Chinese Character: 關心一寸) that will tell you when they are logged on and when they have updated their minihompy.
Buddy relationships can be freely ended by either member. The other member is not directly notified, but the former buddy’s name will disappear from the buddylist.
Minihompy (Korean Hangul: 미니홈피)
The main feature of Cyworld is the service called minihompy, which combines a photo gallery, message board, guestbook, video, and personal bulletin board. What sets Cyworld apart from traditional blog sites such as Blogger and LiveJournal is the "miniroom", which is the virtual room where the blogger's cyberspace avatar, or "mini me", lives. Users can choose to buy wallpapers, clothes for their virtual counterparts, furnishings, background music, banners, fonts and other decorations for their minihompy. To buy these items, users must first exchange their real world currency with Cyworld money called "dotori" (Korean: 도토리) –- literally translated, "acorns." Most of these items are time-limited, and automatically disappear once that time has expired.
The typical layout for a minihompy has a title (e.g., "This is X’s minihompy"), and four main areas. The left column has a photo, followed by a brief description and user information (name, blood type, birthday, address, etc.), and links to mutual buddies’ minihompys. The center area displays the main content (profile, photo gallery, bulletin board, diary, etc.). On the intro page, this area features the user’s avatar and miniroom, as well as recent postings, and an area for visitors to leave short comments. Off to the right side is a quick menu of links to all the pages of the minihompy, and to the far right is a window that tracks various statistics such as number of visitors.
Club (Korean Hangul: 클럽)
"Clubs" are community rooms that users can create to discuss a specific topic. Furnishing a club is similar to furnishing a miniroom and requires purchases through acorns.
Paper (Korean Hangul: 페이퍼)
"Paper" is Cyworld’s blog-like service. It provides blog-like platforms, but It is like Mail magazine rather than blog.
NateOn (Korean Hangul: 네이트온)
Cyworld collaborates with Nate.com to provide users with an instant messenger service. This service used to be compatible with MSN Messenger, which was the most widely used instant messenger service in Korea, but it is no longer compatible, and has nevertheless overtaken MSN Messenger in Korea.
Acorn (Korean Hangul: 도토리)
Cyworld uses its own virtual currency called “Dotori,” or “Acorn.” One acorn costs 100 won, approximately USD $0.10. Prices vary from about 2 acorns for a wall painting to 5 acorns for a song, or 30 and above for a background for one's homepage for a year.
Cyworld's daily revenue from selling "acorns" is estimated to be around USD $300,000, as of September 2005.
[edit] Effects on Internet culture
Korea’s Internet culture has embraced the Cyworld model, which differs from the blog culture of the United States. The simplicity of buying items to decorate one’s minihompy, without needing to learn HTML or Photoshop, has attracted many young women who had not previously used the Internet. This item-based business model has also bolstered Internet community sites that had previously struggled as free services. Many renowned Korean socialites and celebrities have been known to possess a cyworld account in which details of their upcoming tours and works are posted, such is the case with korean icons such as Duk-In Joo, poet and author of the bestselling meaning of meanings novel.
The corporate world has also embraced Cyworld, with examples of companies creating minihompies to accompany product launches. Celebrities and politicians have also increasingly opted for minihompies, rather than homepages, to gain closer contact with the population.
In late-July 2006, Cyworld opened a U.S. version in a public beta with plans to officially launch in August. The site will eventually offer a music and mobile service, according to blog reports.
Also in 2006, Cyworld received the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for its society-wide transformation of interpersonal interaction.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Cyworldbloggers.com (English) : http://cyworldbloggers.com
- Cyworld 2 Blog (English) : http://c2.cyworld.com/en/
- Cyworld official websites: (South Korea / China / Japan / Taiwan / USA)
- Nate.com (Korean)
- SK Communications (Korean)
- SK Telecom official websites: (Korean / English / Chinese)
- SK Corporation official websites: (Korean / English / Chinese)
- Wired profile: Koreans Find Secret Cybersauce
- The Age article: Koreans cybertrip to a tailor-made world
- The Industry Standard article: Online social network scores hit in South Korea
- Pikwik article: Pikwik article on Cyworld
- BusinessWeek article: My World Is Cyworld
- BBC News article: Koreans playing the game of life
- International Business Times article: Cyworld Lands on Myspace
- CNN: Asian social-networking site takes on MySpace [3]
