Koreans have long embraced the benefits of online auction websites, and since 2000 when GMarket entered the marketplace the website has had great success. It is now considered a reference when looking to buy something online. Such has been the success of this company that they went public on June 29th, 2006 on Nasdaq and its market cap stands at about 1.16 billion dollars.

Gmarket’s success has not gone unnoticed by some other larger players, sparking rumors that Yahoo might choose to buy the company, among other rumors. Now, SK Telecom has entered the game and created the open market that is www.11st.co.kr, combining this with some of the other businesses that SK already participates in we can possibly find many synergies that will make 11th street a credible threat to Gmarket.

The market dynamics in Korea, in which traditional, large and powerful players compete with new innovative actors, and combined with the convergence of different sectors and industries, may provide a vision of things to come, as we can see SK is busy with this and their acquisition of Hanaro Telecom which is already creating a lot of waves in the TMT sector in Korea.

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Posted: 02|29|08 at 4:12 pm. Filed under: Business in Korea, Issue & Trend, New Stuff. New here? Follow this entry via RSS 2.0. Comment | Trackback