New Year`s Greeting via Text Message

SK Communications, Inc., which operates nate.com that provides various Internet services including the wireless, announced yesterday that 4 million SMSs were sent on December 31 last year via its instant messenger "Nateon." The number of text messages sent was about 20 times bigger than before.

According to SK, the SMSs were for sending New Year`s greetings in most cases. The online text message service enables a customer to type and send various symbols called `emoticon` that are not available on the mobile handsets. The text messages were believed to be sent between friends and couples.

SK`s CEO Suh Jin-woo said, "On Christmas Eve, the volume of the text messages were 15 times higher than usual. To help our customers commemorate special days, we will develop and provide various symbols."

Seong-Yub Ra cpu@donga.com