Koreans about to go 3D
Posted: December 18th, 2007, by Yunho Chung
Four years before Second Life was launched and achieved success, a Korean service called Dada World with similar features was launched. Unfortunately did it fail and went under in the IT bubble but also for being ahead of its time in many ways. The project was led by a professor of Kwang Woon university who apparently didn’t give up the idea and he is now about to be the leading figure in the launch of a new service called Teo23. Teo is Korean for place and 23 refer to the twenty third century.
The main aim is the Korean market but one major difference from Second Life is the possibility to shop with real money. So, while walking around with your avatar and being social, you can also enter different shops and markets and buy what you want, pay with your mobile phone and then have it sent home to you. It also claims to include better graphics and easier control and diverse social communities as other advantages.
Second Life never really made it in Korea, and the Koreans remain reluctant to embrace foreign services. One of the reasons for this is the difficulties in understanding the Korean market for foreign companies. Another big problem is the language barriers that comes with the lack of English proficiency and the Korean alphabet Hangul. Therefore, Teo23 have more potential than Second Life since it is adjusting the services to the local markets, something many global companies should learn from.
