A Korean gaming news website published results of a survey among young internet users. The survey has been conducted by two websites www.Puppyred.com and www.ontooniverse.com among 86.000 surfers aged 8-13. Puppyred.com is something like Second Life for children, whereas Ontooniverse.com is a website of a cable TV program comparable to Cartoon Network. Despite a likely bias in the survey population some of the results are fascinating and frightening at the same time.

Approximately 62% of the participants use the internet 1-2 hours a day. This may not sound a lot to you but in Korea even young school children return from school around 6 p.m. or even later. Subtracting time for having dinner and eventual homework these two hours represent probably 80%-90% of their free time during one day. This is underlined by the fact that 92% surf from home. What do the kids do online on their virtual playground? Well the same thing we used to do on real playgrounds, i.e. playing (39% play online games) and meeting friends (27% work on their “Minihompi” or visit their friends’ “Minihompis”). In connection to that it is not surprising that CyWorld is the second most popular website (29%) just after naver (57%).

This trend underlines the appearance of a truly digital youth. However in Korea it gets an almost dangerous dimension which ultimately will further increase problems like internet addiction. On the other hand this early embrace of the internet and its virtual worlds is a good explanation why Koreans usually are regarded as tech savvy, which enhances the development of new services and businesses in the TMT sector.

SK Telecom has announced that user number of “Mobile Cyworld” users has exceeded 1 million, being far ahead of other mobile services like Mobile Daum Café (0.14 million) or Mobile Naver Blog (0.1 million). At the same time the average monthly page view of mobile CyWorld is 350 million which results in the fact that on average a user visits mobile CyWorld eleven times a day or basically once an hour.

65% of the users are female and 50% of the users are between 19-25 years old. Besides writing messages to their friends’ “Minihompy”, sending pictures which have been taken by mobile to their own “Minihompy”. Over a million photos are sent like that monthly resulting in nice data related revenue for SK Telecom. These are usage patterns other MNOs and service providers dream of. Due to age segment specific marketing activities SK Telecom is able to design customized service offerings which add significant value to the customer experience. At the same time it is combined with adequate pricing, e.g. it has a flatrate for usage of mobile CyWorld being very attractive to the younger target group.

Just like many Asian markets Korea also has its local champions which are preferred by users over Western giants. As you might know naver.com is by far the most popular search engine in Korea, another example is the NateOn messenger which according to Koreanclick.com has approximately twice as many users as MSN (13 million vs. 6 million as of February 2007). However one peculiar fact about local Korean champions is that they are not just localized copies of Western archetypes but often times leading in terms of functionality and value added services.

While both interfaces look quite similar with link tabs to selected services which are likely to be sold to interested companies. NateOn goes one step further in usage options and possibilities to generate new revenues. One additional option is that you can transfer money to existing contacts without even knowing their account number, which makes NateOn an alternative to conduct on-line payments.

Another interesting feature is the so called “Gifticon”. This artificial word made of “gift” and “icon” is an innovative service provided by SK Telecom and is something like a voucher you can send to your friends’ mobile which they can then exchange for goods, like e.g. a cup of coffee at Starbucks. A detailed explanation of “Gifticons” can be found on another blog about Korea called www.mobileinkorea.com. Launched in December 2006 the “Gifticon” service has undergone a tremendous development. It started with turnover of approx. 50.000 USD and reached approximately 700.000 USD in August 2007, this equals a monthly growth rate of 39%. Since “Gifticons” are vouchers for designated partners these figures translate directly in higher sales.

Lastly I would like to mention the interconnection to SK owned CyWorld, Koreas leading social networking site, and NateOn. You can easily link your mini homepage to your contact details enabling your friends to visit you and get update alerts once you update your page. This turns NateOn to a tool to keep up to date with your important contacts without even visiting the respective social networking site.