Just to clarify for the TechnoKimchi readers, I just wanted to tell you that I live in SOUTH Korea, not NORTH, and the news article above indeed is happening in South Korea.

It's going to take a long time to explain the whole situation, but here's the gist of it:
Google told the Korean government "I'm sorry, but I'm bigger than you."

Yeah, the decision by Google came at a crazy cost: Google basically had to shut down its core Youtube services and say goodbye to all the government support it's been enjoying. (Korean government supported Google with over $1 million when Google Korean R&D center was founded and is also bringing quite a bit of cash to Google Korea by using YouTube as one of the government's main marketing channels.) This is a pretty big gamble for Google itself, obviously even more so for Google Korea. I'm sure the Korean government is feeling quite a lot of steam right now.

But you don't mess with Google. You do it, next day it's gonna be all over New York Times, CNN, BBC, or what not. Oh, did I forget to mention the Google Search? :) Heck, tons of people in the world won't even be able to tell the country that launched a rocket few days ago is not the same country making its citizens do this.

Not to bash my own government or anything, but there is a tectonic shift I see here. The Internet is so border-less now that it's going to be increasingly difficult for local governments to lay hands on it. For example, Google actually made a way for users to get by just by selecting "another country" on Youtube, even without having to physically be there. So as a government, ultimately you only have two options on the Internet: be completely closed (China and North Korea) or be completely open (many other places).

You can go even further and ask "what does it mean to be 'local'"? Being physically local isn't the only option of being "local" any longer. Are you interested in Canon digital cameras and want to meet the 5D lovers from all over the world on flickr? That's your new local. Interested in NBA? That's your new local. Should I call TechnoKimchi a new local? I'm not sure because there's too much physicality here.

Many have begun worshipping Google for its brave act and a nice punch. How this will all end up remains to be seen, but this was a very crucial step forward for the Korean Internet industry as all others basically gave in to the government. And this was possible because Google is both big and global.

Wrong. Who are the "labor" people to the Internet companies? It's none other than us, the users.

Especially in an environment like in Korea where the scale is relatively small and homogeneity is the word that governs the culture.

What does that mean? By instigating a small number of zealots to form an opinion, you can easily maneuver in the direction of the crowd at will. How does that happen? By making them work FOR YOU.

Now, add in the "pali pali" culture as an ingredient. Everything in Korea moves just F-A-S-T, as if holding on to something old is actually a shame. As a result, what you get is people lined up to react to changes and do something dynamically 24/7. And it's all done manually, often even without getting paid.

It's widely known that much of Naver search is operated manually by hiring people to add links for certain topics and to edit the search results (for like $4/hr. Now I call that cheap labor!) Even when it comes down to content creation, many people are still paid to do so at an extremely fast pace, going after popular keywords at the moment. What's even more interesting is we have armies of 댓글알바, a.k.a. paid comment spammers, who'll just paint the Internet plaster with commercial content while masquerading as innocent housewives, students, or prosumers. Wrong. They aren't. They're often just college students that are dying to make the same $4/hr for leaving 100 comments on a designated topic.

Again, this is possible because Korea has a relatively small Internet market; people's interests don't vary much so it can be covered through manual editing. For Google, which tries to cover the entire Web, this might not be as cost-effective. You can't hire people or even instigate people to cover every single topic on earth. It just won't cut it. At the same time, for Korean users, Naver's handpicked materials are far higher quality meat than the automated version like Google's. This partially explains why Google still holds less than 5% of search market in Korea and the siloed portals are still dominant.

Want to succeed in Korea? Hear my words: work hard. I mean, real hard.

from freelanceswtich.com

I pulled both of my hamstrings last week and my legs aren't feeling that great; so I stayed home all day today; and I worked all day. I had my Springnote stuff going on one side, Open Web Asia prep on the other, on top of all my blogs.

Here's the thing. I was home all day and I probably talked to something like 100 people, either through Skype, MSN messenger, Google Talk, email, blog comments, Springnote, Facebook, phone, SMS, and the list goes on. And I think I'm actually more tired than physically working in office with 10 teammates. Oh, and the people I talked to today are in L.A., New York, Boston, Tokyo, Beijing, Singapore, London, and Seoul.

This is what the Internet means to me. It's got some ontological and existential meaning in it. The Internet gives my existence a meaning. It proves that I'm alive to those that are in different time zones.

Like in the cartoon above, sometimes it puzzles me. I just wanna ask the person on the other side, whether on messenger or blog comments, "how can you be so sure that the person you're talking to is the person you think you're talking to?" Of course, it's possible to deceive someone even if you physically meet him or her; but the Internet makes it even more difficult to detect.

I believe that the online and offline realities must come together some time soon. This should be applied to collaboration as well. Communicating in non-physical space never can be as effective or rich in meaning as face-to-face communications, but we've just gotta find a better way for this.

The latest report in Korea says 99.9% of teens use the Intenret and something like 98.7% of those in their 30's. The way we communicate with and find meaning in each other is completely changing. We actually might be getting dumber. But, it's just the way it is.

How will this new technology be mixed with the Asian spirit and values, which have always valued harmony and co-existence over individualism and independence. Surely, you'll get a better picture at this at Open Web Asia next week.

This post isn't necesesarily about the digital generation in Korea, but the ever changing landscape in humanity in general, I guess. Or, I'm just very tired and don't really know what I'm talking about. ;)

So, with that, good night, folks!