Michael Yei-Tae Kim

With the nation’s rapidly growing online game market, the world’s leading online game companies are gearing up for their entry into the lucrative Korean market. EA Korea, which markets Ultima Online in Korea for Origin Systems Inc. of the U.S., has recently concluded a contract with the Korea Multi-Culture Association, an interest group of local […]

Korea will introduce a new registration system for domain names at the end of this month, enabling companies and organizations to establish personal domain names and plural accounts. The National Computerization Agency (NCA) announced that the existing registration system, which limits just a single domain name forcompanies or organizations, will be revised to allow registration […]

Korea’s proposed national Internet banking system, scheduled for launch next month, is expected to be delayed as Korea Telecom is technically ill-prepared, according to sources. For this reason, the participating banks are now also considering to establish their own online banking system instead of the joint banking system, bringing the projected service to the verge […]

Hyundai Motors has announced that it has launched online sales of its passenger cars, focusing on subcompact models, to take advantage of the soaring number of Internet users. Late last month, Korea’s largest automaker has begun marketing cars through the Internet and will now become the first Korean car manufacturer to open a cyber car […]

In a bid find an alternative to its poor performance in telephone service operations, Korean long-distance telecom Dacom plans to restructure its existing businesses by focusing more on e-commerce and other Internet-related services. “In order to overcome the limited growth potential of the phone service business, we will concentrate our efforts on promoting Internet-related businesses, […]

Korean commercial banks are now busy preparing for the launch of Internet banking services, following government approval of the online security system’s safety. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) recently announced that there is no security problem in the current Internet-based banking system, which was built by Korea Telecom. “We requested Korea Information Security Agency (KISA) […]

Korea’s online stock trading is expected to soar as online gaming arcades will be allowed to offer stock trading through the Internet starting from late this month. Korea Internet Multi-Culture Association, an interest group for online gaming arcade owners, announced recently that it concluded an agreement with the nation’s 12 major securities companies to allow […]

The number of Korea’s Internet users is increasing rapidly, boosting sales of various Internet-based businesses. Samsung Economic Research Institute reported that the number of domestic Internet users had increased 10-fold during the past three years, marking 3 million at 1998’s end and exceeding 4 million as of the end of April this year. And, the […]

Amazon.com, the world’s largest Internet-based bookstore, saw its sales growing rapidly in Korea. The company sold a total of 3,087 books, worth 190.97 million won (about US$15,910) in less than two months since it launched sales in Korea in late March, according to Samsung Corp. Amazon.com is selling books in Korea through SIS & Amazon, […]

As local demand for high-speed Internet access rises, Korea Telecom and two other leading telecommunications service providers are competing fiercely with each other to preoccupy the rapidly-growing market. Industry sources said that the number of subscribers for high-speed Internet access service in Korea has more than doubled to 135,000 during the first four months of […]

SK Corp., the flagship company of SK Group which is one of the nation’s top five conglomerates, announced that it concluded a contract with Oracle Systems Korea as solution provider for its entry into e-commerce. The company is planning to invest 10 billion won (about US$8.3 million) to build contents as well as purchase hardware […]

With the growing interest in online auction, Internet auction sites are enjoying a rapid growth in Korea, in terms of both the number of users and trading volume. Industry sources said that thousands of Netizens newly register on such local Internet auction service daily, and the transactions through the auction sites are increasing steadily. Internet […]