Michael Yei-Tae Kim

Online stock trading in Korea is growing at an explosive pace, accounting for 29 percent of the nation’s stock trading in August, compared with 20 percent to 27 percent of the United States, according to the Korea Securities Dealers’ Association. Industry analysts predict that the online stock trading would expand to nearly 50 percent of […]

Cyber-malls in Korea are concentrating on improving their systems in order to cope with the explosive traffic increase. Major Internet malls including Interpark, Metaland and Samsung Internet Shopping Mall, are introducing load balancing system to improve overall performance and reliability of the site by automatically rebalancing the load as the traffic to their malls exceed […]

With electronic commerce booming in the region, logistics is now emerging in Korea as one of the most important elements for the success of the Internet shopping mall businesses. Industry observers said that when customers receive products later than the promised dates, the credibility of online malls would be hurt and this will lead to […]

Korea’s Internet solution providers such as 3R Soft, Handy Soft and E-Net Corp. are turning their eyes to overseas markets. In particular, these companies have begun penetrating into other Asian markets as well as the North American market. 3R Soft, the market leader, gives more emphasis on advancing into Asian market rather than North American […]

Korean advertising agencies are gearing up for the Internet ad market by strengthening sales teams and collaborating with foreign advertising firms, according to industry sources. Cheil Communications, LG Ad, Diamond Ad and other leading agencies recently have recruited experienced sales people, and they are seeking tie-ups with foreign Internet ad sales companies. In addition, second-string […]

Stock trading on the Internet is growing explosively in Korea, with the nation’s five leading brokerage firms seeing their combined online trading exceeding 100 trillion won (about US$83 billion) so far. The trading amount, estimated by officials of Daishin Securities, is based on figures from the first seven months of this year from Daewoo Securities, […]

Local Internet portal sites in Korea are struggling to gain an edge by introducing free e-mail services with added features. Yahoo! Korea, the nation’s leading Internet portal, started to offer free e-mail service in mid-July, which also includes new functions such as e-mail filtering that classifies received e-mails automatically, and another function that enables users […]

Local e-commerce solutions providers are making headway in the Korean market as new domestic companies such as E-net Corp. and Pionsoft Inc. take advantage of imported rivals by offering more competitive prices and customized applications. E-net Corp., one of the nation’s leading e-commerce solutions providers, recently clinched an order from Gold Bank to build a […]

Hanaro Telecom, Korea’s new local phone service carrier, is to launch the Internet movie theater of first-run films through high-speed Internet access. Hanaro Telecom officials said that it will show the American movie Austin Powers through its Internet HanaNet homepage from July 24, simultaneously with first-run movie theaters in Korea. So far, some local service […]

Japan’s Softbank, which is owned by Korean-Japanese businessman Masayoshi Son, has acquired Nowcom, one of Korea’s top four leading online service providers. An executive of Nowcom said that Asia Online, Softbank’s subsidiary in Hong Kong, has reached an agreement with Han Chang Group to undertake its controlling ownership in Nowcom. Han Chang, the cordless phone […]

Thanks to the soaring number of Korea’s Internet users, Hansol CS Club, Samsung Mall, Uniplaza and the nation’s other major Internet shopping malls saw their online sales more than doubled during the first half of this year. Hansol CS Club, the leading online shopping mall in Korea which is run by Hansol CSN, posted 32 […]

The successful debut of Lycos Korea is posing a threat to Yahoo! Korea, which has been the leading portal site in the country. Lycos Korea, which was established last March as a 50-50 joint venture between Lycos Inc. and Mirae Corp., launched its Korean-language search engine ‘Lycos Korea’ on July 1, with its first day’s […]