South Korea has been fertile ground for online game developers. The country has countless internet cafes filled with gamers nationwide and even TV stations for broadcasting games. Especially since the country is also a major developer of online games itself, online games that have hit it big in South Korea have tend to do well elsewhere in the region, and has also established partnerships and investments with major foreign gaming companies.

Korea’s advanced online games have been widely successful, with primary export destinations as the United States (with Maple Story), Japan (Aion) and Taiwan (Kart Rider) with increasing market penetration and revenue coming from China, and popularity in Malaysia, Thailand, and Europe. Nexon America Inc., the U.S. division of Asia leading Korean online games company Nexon Corporation’s first release “MapleStory” (2D side-scrolling fantasy MMORPG with cartoony graphics), had exceeded three million registered users in North America, making it one of the fastest growing MMO(massive multiplayer online) games, known for its robust community and the ability to personalize game characters in endless combinations.
There have also been websites that provide popular Korean online games such as gamengame.com in English, for free.

Foreign developers have already been seeking out juicy opportunities and investment strategies with Korean developers in online gaming industry
In 2006, EA(Electronic Arts), the biggest game software producer in the world, had joint hands with Korea’s number one gaming company Neowiz and co-developed their first game, FIFA online. In an effort to enter the online gaming industry, EA has strategically sought this opportunity to learn about the Asian online game market region through Neowiz, as Korean games have already established a footing in the region. Hence, FIFA online has been one of Korea’s number one online game, and it has been further developed for consoles such as Xbox due to its popularity. Other joint developments included NBA Street Online and Battlefield online.

Though game users in many other countries have been more friendly with console games to online game, with the worldwide proliferation of broadband internet access and the rapid growth of internet users, brings positive prospect to the future of Korea’s online gaming industry. It seems that there is much room for further expansion and development in this massive multiplayer industry, meaning Korea’s online games are the thing to look out for!

According to a quarterly report by Akamai, South Korea has been once placed on top of the Broadband Connection Speed by country list for the fourth quarter of 2009.

Despite the fact that its internet performance has fallen by 29% YoY in the transmission speed of 11.7Mbps to stay level, they still have been able to maintain their much leading top spotl, as the average of the top 3 countries, Korea, Hong Kong and Japan, still remains at 9.3Mbps.

Korea’s standing in the 2010 first quarter report definitely seems to be promising.

                                                     (Source: Akamai)

Until now, the Korean telecommunication industry sole client base had been individual customers.  They were naturally the target customers, since people were the ones who needed telecom services for their mobile phones, home phones, and office phones. However, the telecommunication service  industry had been facing market saturation with its 47.9 million users, which accounted for almost the entire Korean population. Hence, it had been difficult to go beyond the fierce zero-sum battle over the fixed pie amongst the three major telecom players: SKT, KT and LGT.

Nevertheless, the three telecom service moguls overcame recent stagnant growth and have made a breakthrough with the B2B market. They had found a convergence model where they can create value and services by providing software solutions to a carefully selected range of core businesses of such as logistics, finance, education, healthcare, manufacture, transportation and SME (small medium enterprises).

This opened new windows for the telecommunication sector, and also created synergy value between businesses and optimized services for end consumers. Hence, the three telecom services launched their innovative projects; SKT introduced its IPE (Industry Productivity Enhancement), KT with its S.M.ART (Save cost Maximize profit Art), and lastly LGT began its ‘Taltongshin’(beyond telecom) project.

On this issue, I am going to first introduce SK Telecom’s IPE, with KT and LGT on the upcoming issues.

SK Telecom

IPE, Industry Productivity Enhancement was built as SKTelecom’s goal of becoming a ‘Global ICT(Information & Communication technologies) leader’, and also to evade stagnation in the industry. SKT’s qualified TF(task force) has selected upon eight core businesses in  logistics, finance, retail, education, healthcare, manufacturing(automobiles), housing construction, and SME(small medium enterprises). I will introduce POSCO and the automobile industry’s MIV as two of SKT’s IPE systems.

To establish a firm IPE in manufacture, SKT has collaborated with POSCO (world’s top producing Korean steelmaker) to construct a “Smart Factory,” which is based on the concept of the smartphone ‘Mobile Office’(operational management service which includes name card, electronic payment, schedule, bulletin, staff check etc) SKT had provided the previous year.  Hence within the next 4 years, POSCO is planning to replace all in-house cable phones to wireless phones, and establish a ‘(fixed wireless) broadband convergence network’ using the WCDMA(3G mobile) network. These ‘smart’ fixes are expected to bring positive effects on logistics, equipment, safety, and energy savings to POSCO.

SKT is also establishing an IPE for the automobile industry called MIV (Mobile In Vehicle). MIV is a diagnostic remote control system that provides services such as anti-theft, emergency rescue, AV integration system, meter check, etc , which is also anticipated to enhance productivity.

President of SK Manwon Jeong has stated the four mission statements of accomplishing SKTelcom’s vision of becoming a global leader in ICT, which are procuring a patriotic leadership in technology, developing of new markets, propelling globalization with its synergy effects, and increasing consumer welfare.
And, they are expecting to do so, however, not solely in their captive marekt, but by creating new market space many diverse industries.