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 Daum Communications.
He explained that a formal announcement would be made in mid-May. Daum is
seeking to introduce US$6 million from a U.S. investor by the end of May.
Lee noted that Daum would be listed on the KOSDAQ, Korea’s over-the-counter
stock market, around June.
Also, Double Click, the second largest Internet advertising company in the
United States, is expected to make its debut in the Korean market in July,
according to industry sources.
Industry analysts say that the establishment of the Internet ad agency
will bring more advertising opportunity to foreign companies which are
aggressive in marketing overseas, thus further boosting Korea’s Internet
advertising industry.
With the establishment of the joint venture, 24/7 Media Korea, Daum
Communications intends to occupy 10 percent share of the nation’s Internet
advertising market, which is now estimated at about 30 billion won (US$25
million). And, its marketing will be more focused on targeting overseas
clients.
So far, Yahoo! Korea has been the only commercial Web site that has received
advertising orders from abroad, thanks to the global advertising network of
Yahoo!.
Daum’s Internet portal site, Hanmail.Net Online, a free Web-based e-mail
service, has more than 1.7 million registered users and enjoys a daily
average of about 7.5 million page views. It is posing a challenge to
Yahoo! Korea, which has around 8 million page views per day.
The company has enjoyed rapid growth in ad revenues which amounted to 600
million won (US$0.5 million) during the first quarter of this year,
surpassing its sales for the whole year of 1998. The company set its 1999
sales goal at 3 billion won (US$2.5 million).
Daum expects that the number of registered users of its free e-mail service
will increase to about 3 million by the end of this year, according to
company officials.
