I am not a huge fan of game though, Korea is famous for its advanced game market, especially in online game. Pearl Research, American consulting firm, forecasts the online games market in Korea will exceed $1.7 billion by 2009, driven by new releases and a fervent gaming culture.

Following chart is Top online game in Korea on October 2008.

Most of games are developed and published by Korean game company,except World of Warcraft which is developed and published by Blizzard. Among these online games, FIFA online 2, ranked as number 3, is developed by both EA(www.ea.com) and Neowiz(www.neowiz.com)

EA traditionally have made package games such as Sims, Need for speed, Battlefield, NBA, and FIFA series. To get into the online game business EA invested the Korean online game company Neowiz, currently EA is the second shareholder of Neowiz. Neowiz is Korean game company, operating online game portal Pmang(www.pmang.net),  top 3 game portal in Korea. Together with Neowiz, EA focused on getting the FIFA series into its online version.

FIFA online 1 was launched in 2006 in Korea and the year after the second version of the game, FIFA online 2, was established. FIFA online 2 is currently reaping its success in Korea  with revenue of around 2 million dollars per month.

I think FIFA online has pretty successed to enter not even Korean online game market also global online game market.  EA is trying to make FIFA online successfull at other countries too. FIFA online 2 was launched in Japan to the public on October 2008. Also FIFA online 2  is preparing to get launched in China and other markets. On November 28, FIFA online 2 will start open beta test globally (If you want to see more about FIFA online 2 open beta test, visit here)

Following video is intro for FIFA online 2, please enjoy.

Internet banking is very common in Korea. According to the Bank of Korea, the number of registered user in financial institution for internet banking is currently more than 50 million.
Meanwhile, the users of mobile banking are around 7.8 million, which is an increasing by 90% over last 12 months.

This popularity is mainly driven by the growth of VM (Virtual Machine) mobile banking users. In Korea, there are two different types of mobile banking, one is IC mobile banking and the other is VM mobile banking. IC mobile banking is using IC chip, inserted in mobile handset, to use mobile banking. Only limited mobile handsets provide IC mobile banking. However VM mobile banking is using application software, installed at mobile handset, to do internet banking. This means that you don’t need a special mobile phone to use mobile banking.

TU Media has been able to acquire the simultaneous re-transmission rights from MBC according to an interesting article I just read. This represents a big step for TU Media but it comes two and a half years too late.

As TU Media started operations in mid 2005 it tried to acquire simultaneous re-transmission rights from broadcasters. This means that S-DMB viewers would be able to watch popular dramas and shows simultaneously with fixed TV. These contents are considered the most popular on both fixed and mobile TV. However, previously have broadcasters been reluctant to share these contents because they wanted to use it for their own T-DMB service. This is why S-DMB had to focus on other contents like sports and news. But the lack of “killer” contents from fixed TV hindered S-DMB development (as shown in the graphic above). Until today it had been able to acquire approximately 1.26 million subscribers. But according to TU Media they need approximately 2.5 million subscribers to be profitable. As a result, as reported two weeks ago, SK Telecom is thinking about limiting its involvement in TU Media.

But also T-DMB is struggling to build a profitable business. Despite more than seven million T-DMB devices in Korea the advertising revenues are marginal. Which partially is the result of very restrictive legislation on advertising but also broadcasters have failed to develop an attractive mobile advertising value proposition to make this channel more attractive for advertisers.

Experts are blaming policy for allowing two different mobile TV standards and businesses. Their competition was one of the main obstacles that mobile TV could not develop its full potential. So is mobile TV doomed in Korea? I do not think so, because consumers have embraced this new medium and it is very likely that broadcasters will take mobile TV more serious and endeavor to make mobile TV advertising more attractive for broadcasters. Until 2012 more than 20 million T-DMB devices are expected, so mobile TV has a future in Korea. In these days I am finalizing the mobile TV report I have been working on recently, so if you are interested in a more in-depth analysis of the Korean mobile TV market let me know. I am eager to share it with everybody who might be interested.