Michael Yei-Tae Kim

Korea’s Internet portals and online information service providers are struggling for advantageous positions in the future cyber space by further broadening their service categories. Major Internet portal sites such as Yahoo! Korea and Hanmail.Net Online are trying to expand their service domain into that of PC communications services, while online information service firms announced that […]

24/7 Media plans to establish a joint venture in Korea with Daum Communications Corp., one of the major portal service providers in Korea. Lee Jae-Woong, president of Daum Communications Corp., said that 24/7 Media Korea, the joint venture capitalized at 700 million won (US$583,000), will be established in 65-35 joint venture between 24/7 Media and […]

Major Korean banks are expected to offer online banking services through the Internet starting in July at the earliest, according to industry sources. The sources said that a total of nine domestic commercial banks, including Shinhan Bank, KorAm Bank, Housing & Commercial Bank, Kookmin Bank, Hana Bank and Industrial Bank of Korea, would participate in […]

The Korean Ministry of Finance & Economy announced that it is studying ways to establish an Internet-based stock exchange. The ministry might revise the existing securities transaction law before the end of the year to pave the way for the establishment of cyber stock exchange. “The idea is designed to help listed companies improve their […]

Korea’s cybermall online transactions are gaining momentum in Korea, with the first-quarter sales soaring by about 30 percent over the previous quarter. Lotte Department Store’s cybermall Hello Seoul saw its first-quarter revenue reach US$1.46 million, an increase of 30 percent from the previous quarter. With more than 135,000 members, Hello Shopping posted 2.5 billion won […]

Naver, one of the nation’s most popular search engines, has been enjoying an explosive advertising sales growth since the beginning of this year. Its ad sales during the first three months of this year amounted to 500 million won (about US$0.4 million), which represents a four-fold increase from the same period of the previous year. […]

Online securities trading in Korea is growing at a faster clip than in many other countries as increasing number of stock investors gain an access to the Internet and PC communications networks. Last year, Korea’s online trading of stocks through the Internet and PC networks amounted to 25 trillion won (about US$20.8 billion), the second […]

America Online will make its debut in the Korean market next year by joining forces with Samsung Corp., posing a threat to local online networks which have been enjoying energetic growth in recent years. AOL, the world’s largest online service provider, has reached an agreement with the Korean conglomerate to form a strategic alliance to […]