Nexon grows up so much!

the company Nexon is one of the biggest online game companies in S.Korea, and it is now available in Japan, Europe and America. Since I was playing lots of games(Cartriders, BandB..etc) are presented by Nexon, this company is very familiar to me. The company have developed lots of interesting games, and one game called Maplestory hit all of the world( I meant part of Asia, Europe and North America) . I just found there are lots of blogs talk about Maplestory that shows people's attention on the game. Now I wonder how much money Nexon have earned so far. An article from Insidesocialgames.com reported that 92 million people in the world are users of Maplestory! The article reported "Nexon said that in 2005, the year MapleStory was launched in North America, revenues were upwards of $230 million with a $75 million net profit, and in 2007, U.S. sales of virtual goods were around $30 million." It is only in U.S, and I assume that their total profit would be more than twice of the amount of money. The data is from 2005 and 2007, the company did not take a revenue hit in 2008, and the company announced that their revenue grows 36%in North America.(gameindustry.biz)

Who made best speed internet in the world?

Last week, Aaron said S.Korea has #1 speed internet, and the rank still did not change yet. .
The

"Top Countries by Download Speed" from speedtest.net shows S.Korea's Internet speed is still fastest one. Who made the fastest internet in the world then? There are several Cable service companies in Korea, and I believe that KT is the biggest cable company in Korea. I just read an article from Koreantimes, and KT was #1 internet service provider in 2007, and I am pretty sure that KT is still #1 after they brought KT Wibro(it is like Wifi). Like TimeWarner or Verizon in U.S., KT is now offering variety service all together that has internet+cable+phone, and KT is becoming more powerful after affilating with KTF mobile company.

Showing AD is one of their internet and cable TV service called "QOOK" AD on air, and KT attracts more customers by it.

Do you love shooting game?

Special Force is one of the popular FPS shooting games in Korea. Oh.. well.. I remember it made me crazy few years ago..I just sat in front on computer monitor and played this game for few hours strait in a PCROOM(hundreds of PC in there, you pay about a dollar for an hour to use them), and I was doing the same thing over and over for few month until I started playing another game from Nexon. Yeah. it is kinda addictive once you start playing it, and you will buy lots of different guns and items to win in the game! Anyway, the company of Special Force is now making millions dollar by exporting it to the other countries; Philippine, Taiwan, China...etc. In China, the game hit the peak of the sales only in 6months from the time it was released in there although the game is partly fee-charging one. Now, the company will release the 2nd edition of Special Force on next March which they have developed it for 2yrs, and they expect the sales about 8.9 million dollars for 9months(from March 2010- September 2010).

Wanna play it? there is English version in here, Click!

Cyworld- Korean Vr. of Facebook

I just read an Article about Cyworld in Businessweek website that was published 2005.

Anyway, What is Cyworld? It looks like it---->

I can tell it is like "small e- society" such as Facebook or Myspace in U.S.

It is totallly free to have your own Mini-hompy( which is like your own facebook) , but SKT(which owned Cyworld) got profits from Cyworld about 50 million dollars on 2006, and I am sure that profit have gone up from that time . How could it be possible? As the article says, they sell dotori( which has a value like money; 1 dotori= about 10 cents) to the users who decorate their own miny-hompy with their choice of music, templates and text style...etc. So the profits are not only for Cyworld, but it is also for music and art industries that provide their work. There is one female singer who sold one of her songs for 6 dotori, and she earned about 100 thousand dollars in a month through only Cyworld. Isn't that great deal for her? oh, yeah. It is great deal for Cyworld too! Now, the Cyworld is seeking for another new item like the Dotori that increases their profit.

check out the u.s ver. of Cyworld>> U.S. Cyworld

Give you an idea of this Blog

Hi there,
I just changed my blog subject to Business in Korea Internet from the Funny ads.
It was great to talk with Aaron about all blog thing I missed, and he gave me great idea to make another blog that perfectly fits for this Business of Media class. I have been using Internet since the time when I was 5 or 6th grade(2000..I guess) because of the K-internet service was expanding broadly at that time, and I know very well enough to talk about it.I want to talk about K-internet which is the fastest one in the world and business in the K-internet that interests so many people in different countries.

economy and humorous ads

Few days ago, I read an interesting article that is about this period of bad economy and humorous advertising. It says humorous ads are more popular(it implies that humorous ads sell more products) during this period. How does the result come up?

I remember the last year, the horrible year ever I had in NYC, dollar currency was crazily going up high, so I had to take a break and go back to my country for few months and waited until the currency became stable, and many people who are around me got laid off or fired by their companies. I could feel that it is really harsh time for everyone, and some people said that it is like the depression all over the world. Now, I assume that the economy gets better, but it is not stable at all.

What about the advertising industry? I believe that the advertising industry also got damage from this period because it is like the food chain that clients need to sell their products through advertising to consumers. So the advertising industry would get damages if consumers could not buy client's products because the company of the client may reduce the expense for advertising.

Therefore, advertisers need to have knowledge of what grasps consumers' eyes even though consumers are cautious about their expense because of the bad-economy. Most people get depressed during this time because of economically bad circumstance, and they are seeking for something that refreshes their emotion. So the advertisers found the right answer; humor.

Humorous ads are always grasp people's eyes, but they are even more effective during this time since people seek for something that makes their feeling better. Advertisers catch the people's attention by humor in an ad, and it attracts people to buy products or get services.

I think the article shows that how advertising is constructed psychologically and emotionally. Yup. It really is!

where does the light come from?

I have seen these Ads when I was in Korea, and it always makes me laugh whenever I see them. I guess the Ads came out around 2005, and the ads are for our familiar gum brand ; Orbit. These ads transmit what is the product about very well. Consumers can directly see the brand of Product in these ads since the models are holding them, also they can know that what is the product all about by the light from the lamp shades the models wear on their head ; gum that makes your teeth white! I don't know whether the company still make Orbit White, but I want to try one to see the result that is like this. Haha!

Outdoor advertising for Mr.clean

Do you know Mr. Clean??

I am very familiar with this character since I came to U.S. because I am trying to keep my apartment clean(although I am not that a clean person) and the Mr.clean's products have helped me a lot to keep my apartment clean. (I believe that the Magic Eraser from the company is amazing! that cleans everything.) I am sure you all also know what is Mr.clean, what the products are and what the symbolic character of it is.
This outdoor advertising shows very white outstanding one line with the character of company on the cross walk, and we will directly know that it's an advertising from Mr.clean., and we will laugh because of the only one very white line the character on it!
Did Mr. clean make the line even whiter with products from the company?
The advertising is very simple but has impact because of our general idea of the character from the company. As we know, the character is best symbol of the Mr. clean company, and we also know that this company sells "cleaning products". The idea came from our everyday lives ; products of the company in markets we go and other ads on air we see.
So it has an impact to communicate with people without saying any word. This simple outdoor advertising gives people strong idea of the company and their products.