Blogging Even Bigger in South Korea
Posted on March 24, 2005
An article in the International Herald Tribune says that 11 million people in South Korea have an account on Cyworld, a type of blogging community.
Here is a quote from the article about the big South Korean blogging numbers:
Eleven million South Koreans now have a Cyworld "mini-hompy," or mini home page. That is nearly a quarter of the overall population and a third of the country's online population. SK Communications says that about 79 percent of Cyworld users are in their 20s or 30s. In November, the Cyworld Web site attracted 16.8 million unique visits, according to KoreanClick, a research concern, which also estimated that 90 percent of South Koreans in their 20s were members of Cyworld. Cyworld mini home pages are standardized with templates, the biggest of which looks like an opened agenda. The basics of the Cyworld mini home page service are provided for free. But personalizing and decorating pages with digital items like music, background posters and animated characters costs money in the form of "acorns," which cost 100 won, or about 10 cents, each.Yes, "mini-hompy" does sound funny. But looking at the information in that quote you notice that nearly all young South Koreans blog (90%) or at least have an account they can blog from. BlogCount.com writes how this information could explain recent corporate decisions that led to Yahoo 360 and MSN Spaces: "It's clear why Yahoo! started their blog service there, to learn about blending blogs with other services. Their sudden successes explain Yahoo! 360 blending blogs, Flickr, MyYahoo, etc. Microsoft Spaces blending IM. Friendster giving blogs to all their members."
BlogCount also points out that a greater percentage of South Koreans have access to broadband than Americans do. BlogCount.com writes, "95% of South Koreans have broadband access somewhere (home, school, work), many at 100 Meg per second, not even dreamed of in the U.S."
With these massive numbers emerging from a society nearly fully immersed in broadband (South Korea) it is clear that blogging has a long way to go before it peaks here in the United States, especially for the 20 and 30 year-olds.