TechnoKimchi

So again, one of the biggest reasons I might want to buy iPhone 4 is, obviously, it's sleek design. Apple has done it again. Now, the iPhone 4 vs Galaxy S is a hot topic in Korea and there's been many chatters online.

Now, to my surprise, there's been speculation that iPhone 4's design actually came from Korea. It probably makes you go "what?" But I must say "Haha, brilliant." to the claim. It's just funny; it's funny not because it's stupid, but because it's creative. Oh, how I love the creativity of the Korean Internet netizens.

Here's the evidence for the claim: a picture taken from the Korean subway station's entry gate:

DeathMatch: iPhone 4 vs Galaxy S!!!!

... or.. at least that's the title around which Samsung tried to create a buzz. Samsung's Galaxy S was officially introduced to public only 10 HRS after iPhone 4 was.

What a coincidence!

You search for "Galaxy S" on Naver news/blogs, pretty much every single article was written with the title "iPhone 4 vs Galaxy S." Now, somewhat sadly, iPhone creates a distinctly bigger buzz in Korea; so either you search for 'iPhone 4' or 'Galaxy S', you'll end up learning something about Galaxy S. I had a brief Twitter discussion with some other Korean twitterers, but many think the same. It seems like Samsung "used" iPhone for its own publicity. Especially, given the fact Samsung has a huge influence over any major media outlets in Korea and that Samsung probably sent out tons of press releases yesterday, it's quite apparent piggybacking was Samsung's strategy for Galaxy S debut.

Or Google's. Google's Andy Rubin, the father of Android, was also at the conference, calling Galaxy S "the best of the best."

One thing to notice: the iPhone 4 vs Galaxy S battle, in my opinion, doesn't count as a legit one because one is more about culture and content while the other is more about hardware. It's kind of like comparing a Korean bear against an American ferret. Yes, they'll be competing against each other in the market like a bear and a ferret would inside a zoo (for attention), but most of the articles miss the point. It's pointless to compare the two side by side because they don't give the same experience at all.

 I personally hope both do well; more "good" options, all the better for us. As for me, I'm probably sticking with Nexus One, set to come out in about 2 weeks. It's expected the phone is nearly zero-priced with 2-yr plan and will be priceless with its Mifi Hotspot feature, as I already own an iPod touch and in the midst of saving money up for an iPad.

Or should I wait and get iPhone 4 and a Samsung Galaxy Tab?

Too many choices; too much happiness; too much headache.

So, just to jump into the wild frenzy after WWDC 2010 and the introduction of iPhone 4, I checked out the official iPhone 4 introduction video here. Again, what an amazing phone! Gotta love Apple.

Except for one thing that caught my attention: the FaceTime feature. Basically, it's a video calling feature, using Wi-Fi connections (I'm sure telcos won't allow it on 3G networks) The video allows quite a bit of time to introducing the feature, almost making me think "is this the biggest leap this year?" Check out the background music; it sounds like Apple now wants to be a family commodity, giving me quite a bit of the Microsoft-ish chill.

Anyhow, the reason I'm talking about Facetime on TechnoKimchi is simple. We've been doing that for a very long time in Korea and it has not turned out what everyone had expected. Conclusion: not too many people use it; and when used, it's mostly for different purposes--that is a tool for honesty probing. Like when housewives want to make sure their husbands aren't actually cheating on them, when they tell them "I'm staying late at work today, honey" and the wives go, "yeah, let's have a video talk. Honey, I wanna see your face", which actually means "You're guilty until you're proven to be innocent with no girls around you through this very real-time video call!"

As much as family is supposed to be built around love and trust, we're living in a world where trust often fails. Parents call upon their children to make sure they're studying right. Husbands and wives. Oh, this one will hurt: bosses and employees. Ouch.

Here's the transcript of Scott Forstall talking about what kind of family value Facetime will bring about:

I'm not sure. Maybe video calling used for honesty probing might pertain only to the Korean market. I hope so. But, not only it feels strange to see Apple trying to project itself as such a Microsoft-ish family-friendly brand, but also it was quite interesting how it gave even more meaning to FaceTime than retina display.

All in all, it's Apple and everyone loves it. Can't wait to see iPhone come out next month in Korea. Yes, South Korea was on the list!

(Oh, by the way, the satire above was for a good joke. I was just having fun with it =)

It's June 1st and this marks the 4th year of TechnoKimchi. While I haven't been the most consistent blogger in the world, I have learned a great deal from running this blog and have been able to meet a great deal of great people through TechnoKimchi. What a blessing! (Especially events like Geeks On A Plane and Startup Weekend Seoul, which I'll cover later here)

Anyhow, back to the point. TechnoKimchi runs on a Korean-native blogging service named Tistory (a service by Daum), which is based on Textcube, formerly known as Tattertools, a Korean native blogging platform; my goal, initially, was to use the best of the tool and let the world know about the superiority of Korean blogging technology :)

Unfortunately, two things happened: first, Tistory has evolved into a completely Korean (-optimized) service, meaning Tistory isn't the best, or the best customized, tool for a blog like TechnoKimchi, which needs to get lots of exposure to the "English" blogosphere, including SEO, Twitter plugins and etc.

Second, I've been quietly waiting to migrate to the Textcube.com service when it goes global full-throttle. Textcube.com to Textcube (the tool) is what Wordpress.com is to the Wordpress tool. The service was acquired by Google about 2 years ago as a bright shining star to improve Google's presence in the Asian blog market. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago, the service officially stopped accepting new account registration and now is a part of Google's Blogger service. (More on this on KoreaCrunch) For acknowledgement, mad props and kudos to my friend Chang, who has been fantastic working on Textcube.com and now is a product manager of Blogger.com at Google and who I'm sure will be continuing his tremendous work!

Again, in summary, I want out of Tistory and move into a good English blogging platform. I've been running my Korean blog on Wordpress for about 7 years now and am pretty familiar with the tool, esp. as I upgraded it to v. 2.9.2 just few days ago. But then I'm thinking, should I try Blogger and get the taste of it?

I'll be playing with and testing various blogging platforms for next few days (if not weeks) An advanced apology for the blog looking weird, ugly, funky, or whatever, or even occasionally going down during that timespan.

Pali pali is the governing culture in Korea. A friend of mine told me that it's probably good for me to stay in that mold this time. I'll give my best shot.

Follow me on:

I had originally written this post in Korean on my Korean blog; realized this might be helpful for others as well; so I'm basically translating my own blog post. I'm sure I can do a better job than Google Translation at least on this =D

Anyhow, many devices, many platforms, many OSs, many companies, many versions, many countries, etc. Should I say we're cursed or blessed by the Tyranny of Choice?

It's always good to put things in perspective; so I just picked out some cores from the big 3: Apple, Google, and Microsoft. All have been there and done that. With the ever-growing convergence of technology, platforms, cultures, countries, languages, on/off life, mobile/desktop, and content suppliers, what we're witnessing is a perfect-stormed-war in 2010. We're seriously living in an interesting time!

Just to add a twist to the picture, here is the list of countries represented on the chart: U.S., S. Korea, Taiwan, and China. The list was subjectively taken by me as an avid reader of Engadget, Gizmodo, GSM Arena, and TechCrunch, and sadly enough, I had to leave out some Asia-based companies like Sony and LG, simply because they don't seem to be as popular in this field as much as the ones aforementioned. At least, this list surely adds a reason for Japanese tech industry to go through some major revolution.

Any ideas to the chart above? I'll be diligent updating the list above for the next couple of days; so any input will be graciously taken.

Follow me on:

It was KT, the no.2 mobile carrier in Korea, that launched iPhone 2 months ago. Obviously, SKT needed counterpart smartphones of its own and decided to launch 15 Android phones in 2010 alone. The Asia-adapted model of Motorola's Droid, named MOTOROI, was the first Android phone introduced in Korea. Today, Samsung finally made an announcement about Korea's second Android phone.

Samsung had already launched 2 Android phones in the U.S last year: Galaxy and Behold 2. In the new model, Samsung completely localized the product for Korean consumers. What message do I get out of this? Samsung IS indeed very serious about the smartphone market. Samsung wants the smartphone phenomenon to happen in Korea.

Samsung's Omnia sold more than iPhone in January. Hey, does that mean Samsung easily beat Apple? Not so quick. According to an article published by Donga Daily, iPhone is far more popular than Omnia among smartphone users (link in Korean), but Samsung exerted more "local player" power on the retail side. The article even goes on to say Samsung knows such a move is nothing more than a bandaid. Samsung very much needs to start producing better smartphones.

Either way, I'm happy. As I keep saying, the Korean digital market has been dark, if not dead, for years. Now the wind of change is blowing strong and more competitions and even "confusion" are being spotted across the field. All the better for us consumers :)

Korea's two heavyweight mobile champions, Samsung and LG, will (have to) learn a lot this year, competing against Apple. It ain't just about technology no longer. It's about design, culture, ecosystem, and most importantly people.

The magical, but most obvious formula: Technology empowers and enables. Culture gives comfort. Design moves the hearts.

image from:http://pictures.deadlycomputer.com/d/30819-2/pic_3564.jpg

Yes, I did say it. In Korea, I believe Apple will soar and Google will not.

It isn't about how awesome their products and services are; it isn't about how smart their strategists are; it isn't even about how much cash they can pour into the Korean market. It's about us; the Korean people.

As I mentioned before, as much as the Internet is being used for "informational" purposes in Korea, it isn't really about efficiency and productivity here, which Google has mastered. Rather, when we say information and productivity, we mean more of "how socially compatible are you when you work with others" or even "how keen are you to what everyone else is talking about?" which is where Google might miserably fail, at least in Korea.

To be more precise, I think Google needs to be more "social" even when giving out information, which is what Naver is doing best. This is also why Google finally gave in here by portalizing itself. Information matters--only when it matters to everyone else at the same time. Google is not particularly good at this--at least not yet. The importance of social belonging and interdependence in the meaning of information is one of the major topics I'll be covering throughout 2010, so keep your eyes closely.

Now, why do I think Apple will soar? I think Apple touches upon the emotional side of the Korean consumers. As much as the tech industry is becoming more like the fashion industry, Apple represents the new "social upper class" among the Korean people. Apple is the new Louis Vuitton and the new Chanel. Asian people love luxury brands and Apple is becoming one of them.

Looking at Korea through the angles of companies--Samsung, LG, Google, Apple-- will be a fun way to learn about Korea. I've started developing a strategic framework on how to attack the Korean tech/digital industry and deeply move our minds and hearts.

I want Google to soar here as well; but that might require too much for Google's pride, at least for those in Mountain View.

2009 was a dark age for both the digital Korea and my blogging career. Fortunately, it was only dark on the surface. Some significant progresses were made and we're seeing the fruits in 2010.

As for Korea, there's probably no bigger milestone than iPhone's invasion into the Korean market. It's been out only for 2 months now and it's literally changing everything in the digital landscape. How fundamental do I think the change is? The iPad news last week was reported by more than 500 Korean news entities, probably making the biggest IT/digital headline ever in Korea. SKTelecom says it has nearly 15 Android phones lined up for this year. How exciting! (For me, I am carrying around a 8G iPod Touch with Wibro Egg for now, which I'll cover more later)

As for myself, I learned a lot, especially about being a serious blogger and a businessman. As a blogger, I used to whine about  myself "not being in the field"; I always thought unless you've actually done some "real" stuff, being a blogger/journalist/analyst/consultant/critique/spectator always will have limitations. 2009 was all about execution, which took away the privilege of sleep from my life. Now I'm finally back, hopefully ready to roll again.

2010 is going to be a big year for both the digital Korea, (which is the main topic of this blog), as well as TechnoKimchi itself. After the Dark Age came Renaissance. There are many good signs that'll happen soon here as well.

Now, why didn't I start this on Jan 1st? I had followup tasks to finish for 2009 and things pretty much ended last week. Or should I say "the mental fiscal year for TechnoKimchi ends on Jan 31 of every year?" ;)

Digital Korea will soar again and TechnoKimchi will expand: those are my predictions for 2010. Thank God, I still got 334 days to prove that!

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.

In this 3-minute video interview, I talk about the impact of the Internet and new media on society, the candlelight vigil, and the fading of Cyworld. I look pretty nervous in the video, so take that into consideration :)

Yesterday, I came across an interesting article about the the Internet usage stats in Korea in 2008. (As you know, it's the end-of-the-year time and we're getting tons of statstical reports summarizing 2008, so it's good time for TechnoKimchi.)

So, to make it brief, you know that the top 3 traffic sites in Korea are Naver, Daum, and Cyworld. And guess what the top 3 search keywords for 2008 are? Yup. They are Daum, Cyworld, and Naver.

Wait a minute. Am I saying that people don't type in the URLs for those sites, but search for them to get there? Apparently so. Basically what this means is that Naver is the biggest traffic generator for Daum and Cyworld. It's like saying "most of Yahoo traffic comes from Google."

Indeed. Among other top 10 search keywords are gMarket (4), Auction (5) (gMarket and Auction are the top two ebay-like sites in Korea), Kookmin Bank (6), Yahoo (7), Woori Bank (8), and Shinhan Bank (9). Take notice the keyword ranking almost exactly aligns with the the most popular sites in Korea.

I've been personally watching some young kids at my church (around elementary school age) use the Internet. They actually do search on Naver for the names of sites they want to get to and get there by clicking on the links. I asked them, "why do you search instead of typing in the URLs?" The answers typically come in two ways: "Why not?" or "URLs?"

This is the power of the search economy. The fact that the top search keywords are Daum and Cyworld, not Naver and Cyworld, means it's the No.1. search portal Naver that sends out traffic to Daum and Cyworld, making them the greatest beneficiaries of their greatest competitor in Naver. Traffic means money, but apparently that's the cost Naver will gladly take.

Display ads are dying. URL games are dying. Newspapers are dying. The only thing that seems to be certain in the midst of economic downturn and flood of information is the efficiency of search engines. No wonder Google is the king no matter what.

(After reading through comments provided by Channy and Chang, I realized this is not a trend only unique to Korea but rather a universal one. Guess who's been behind, haha. Sorry, folks :)

So, I just got back from Open Web Asia '08. In few words, it was just fantastic, amazing, unbelievable, exciting, and purely awesome. There was lots of excitement everywhere. People were just happy to talk about the Web in Asia and what they think they should do next and stuff. It was just full of hope, possibilities, and forward-looking perspectives.

Again, I just got back and it's like 2:30 in the morning right now and I'm pretty much dying to go to sleep now. So I'll probably have to the real blogging stuff tomorrow when I'm less exhausted and more awake. But as a gift, I'm posting up some pictures I took today. The first picture was taken while I was on the way to the conference and crossing the Han river. The second was taken during the panel. The last 3 are from the networking dinner party afterwards. Pictures were taken with my cellphone camera, so the quality is so so at best.

Thank you very much for you all you interests and efforts to put a conference like this together. To my knowledge, this is the first truly "pan-Asian" Web conference in years and it seemed like everyone's been waiting for this for a LONG time.

But, till the next post, good night :)

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So, after months of preparation, we finally got together, to prepare even more for tomorrow. Most of the speakers and organizers were present at the meeting. Like many other conferences, it just feels really good to see those whom you only see online in real person!

For example, Gang Lu and I have been talking for over 2 years and we met for the first time today. Jason Calacanis, whom I sadly didn't get to meet in my last visit to SF in April, was such a great guy, as expected. I was able to hear many great stories from him and I was lucky enough to be able to offer him some insight as well. Andreas turned out to be one of the coolest and the most entertaining guys I've ever met. Loic was just as energizing as I envisioned him to be. What's cool is that guys knew about Korea a lot more than I thought. Tyler, in particular, enjoyed the "Stuff Korean Moms Like" blog, which is very rare to see unless you have that kind of Korean mom. :)

Honestly, one of the concerns I had for this group was that we wouldn't be too friendly and the conference would be too "corporate" and not-as-fun. But today, meeting with everyone simply blew away all of my worries. The group bonding was amazing and people were just friendly to one another and quick to greet each other.

We have a good number of registrants and are expecting a great day tomorrow. I'll do my best to live-blog from the conference tomorrow. Oh, don't forget that I'm one of the speakers as well. Should I go nuts and try to live-blog while on the panel? :)

If you want to follow the conference on twitter, http://twitter.com/openwebasia is it.

See you all tomorrow!

(more pictures)