This video clip is the moment at which Norwegian journalists sang a song to thank me for helping themselves during a study trip.

The Norwegian Journalist group has visited Korea for 5 days to learn and experience in the advanced TMT (Technology/media/telecom) sector. I organized the whole trip for them and also gave a brief lecture to make them understand easily at the beginning of the trip. Keeping the schedule, they were very interested in and satisfied with experiences and lessons especially in the developed Korean mobile skills and business system they got during the trip. It was an absolutely fantastic work and made me excited because this is one of the reasons why I set up my company, Veyond.

Actually, even though the group already knew Korea is one of the leading countries in the TMT sector and really wanted to visit, they had no connection in Korea to make a schedule. They looked for someone who can introduce the Korean TMT sector and fortunately found me at a webpage of the wireless world forum in which I was a guest speaker about Korean mobile.

While they discussed the trip with me by email, I made sure them they found a perfect partner in Korea and tried to give them valuable experiences as much as possible in the short period. The schedule was set up to visit media, telecom companies and some exhibition places. Also it provided some chances for Korean cultures such as a musical, attraction, and shopping mall. Thanks to both sides’ efforts, the trip was successful and there were a lot of interests more than I expected wherever they visited. Due to unforgettable memory, we still have a good relationship.

I strongly believe that there are lots of people who are interested in Korea TMT sector. If there is any opportunity later, I hope to help them again and give them something more than just valuable.

Cyworld, which is a Korean social network site, has been introduced on an American university text book published in this February as a world wide famous social online community service.

The name of the book is “Information Systems Today : Managing in the Digital World” published by the Prentice Hall. This book is used to deliver information of general digital economy systems and its new trends to US students majoring in Economics and Business Management.

On this book, Cyworld is evaluated as an online community service that has created a new economy system via social network same as MySpace in US.

The book says that Cyworld has a dominant penetration rate in South Korea as well as $300,000 revenue per day via new type’s digital item called ‘acorn’. In addition, it mentions that the ARPU is around $7 that is more than MySpace’s ARPU $2.17. Cyworld has more than 20M members in South Korea. Moreover, even at this moment, it has about 10,000 new members per day.
Korean people are also enjoying Cyworld services via NateOn messenger provided by SK Telecom, a major operator in Korea, as well as are able to upload their photos taken by their own handsets.

GSM Association goes with KTF’s mobile payment service

A mobile payment service proposed by Korean operator KTF is uniting the world’s leading service providers. The GSM Association announced at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on the 13th that it will launch a“Pay-Buy Mobile Initiative”as suggested by the Korean mobile operator. The GSM Association comprises about 888 member companies, including service providers, equipment and terminal manufacturers.

Once the agreement comes into force, consumers can purchase goods and services anywhere in the world using their mobile payment enabled handsets. The mobile payments will be made using a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) / Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) card in the phone and contactless Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. Fourteen mobile operators including KTF, Cingular Wireless, China Mobile, and NTT DoCoMo are participating in the initiative.

KTF will lead the initiative and is planning to conduct an end-to-end trial in Korea within this year. In addition, LG Electronics will provide handsets for the initial trial in Korea and Mastercard will also take part. Last year, the GSM Association suggested the global application of NFC, the technology used to link mobile devices to payment and contactless systems. Robert Conway, president of the GSM Association said: “Through the KTF led Pay-Buy Mobile Initiative, users will benefit from the ability to purchase items in a secure and convenient way from the comfort of their own mobile phones.”