Korea Online Service Makes U.S. Debut

SK Communications officially launched “Cyworld,” an online community service, in the U.S. on August 16. SK Communications is the first Korean company to open such type of service in the American market.

The “Cyworld” service has been available to American customers on a tentative basis since last month after SK Communications set up a local operation in San Francisco last October.

In the U.S., the market for Internet community services has been growing rapidly since last year. Currently, 76 percent of all Americans with access to the web, or 130 million, are members of community portals such as myspace.com.

SK Communications plan to offer services in a way that allows itself to preserve its “Cyworld” brand and image to the maximum and, at the same time, cater to the needs of American users. First of all, American “Cyworld” users can pick up the skin color of their avatars so that the color represents ethnicity.

The “Cyworld” service as provided in Korea is characterized by its “il-chon” system, whose counterpart in American “Cyworld” will be “neighbors.” American users buy and spend “acorns,” virtual money used on “Cyworld,” which is the literal translation of “dotori” for Korean users.

Yoo Hyun-oh, CEO of SK Communications, made further remarks on his company’s business plan, “‘Cyworld offers more sophisticated graphics and more varied functions than our American competitors. We will expand our operations into Europe, too.”

mikemoon@donga.com