TechnoKimchi

Google, thanks for not being evil. Yes, you're real big.

Danny Kim twdanny — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:06:11 +0900

Related: (a must-read for this blog post)
Google Refuses to Bow to Gov’t Pressure - Korea Times

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.

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Emerging new world order? Dubai and Korea stand tall.

Danny Kim twdanny — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:19:16 +0900

I just came across a report published by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUA) on the projections for the world's 20 tallest buildings in 2020. (You can view the entire document here. A pretty interesting report.)

What's really interesting is that out of the 20, Dubai has 6 and Korea has 4. Overall, the Middle East has 10 (50%) while Asia has 7 (35%). There's only 2 in the U.S. (10%), only one in Europe (in Moscow), none in Japan.

Now one question I'm tempted to throw is "could this possibly be any indication for the emerging new world order in the not-too-distant future?"

Sure, there are many factors to consider. First of all, you might say "having many tall buildings don't mean jack about the new world order." Some cultures and people just might be more obsessed with tall buildings (I believe Koreans are, in general.) Some governments are strategically doing that just to impress many investors when they come to visit. (Again, I'm pretty sure the Korean government is doing this.) I mean, if you are already rich and powerful, you don't need to show off to prove anything, right? Also, we shouldn't forget that the current economic crisis could simply kill many of those projects. We've been hearing over and over again about the not-so-rosy situation in Dubai.

But, this still has many important implications. The catch-up-from-behind countries are really speeding up. That's including Dubai, China, and Korea. Morever, think about what kind of technology you would need in order to complete a project like this. Remember architecture is a combination of business, technology, arts, social dynamics, and culture. (For example, look at the shape of the building that's being built in Maccah, which is near Mecca.) Think about the urbanization effects. Each of those buildings will probably hold over 100,000 habitants and probably even more during business hours. Basically when you could have monuments like these, you can't take these too lightly.

What do you guys think?

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Why Korean Internet industry is a labor intensive industry

Danny Kim twdanny — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:27:43 +0900

No, Korean Internet companies don't use child labor for harvesting coffee beans. Obviously no workers stuck to assembly lines. Most of the Internet companies don't even have labor unions. After all, labor and the high tech Internet industry wouldn't ring a bell as a good marriage, right?

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.

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Blogger interviews Blogger: A Conversation with Robert Scoble

Danny Kim twdanny — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 20:17:11 +0900

While in Paris last month, I had an awesome opportunity to catch up with Robert Scoble. For your information, I'm sometimes called the "Robert Scoble/Mike Arrington" of Korea :)

A blogger meeting/interviewing another blogger is always a great thing. In short, Robert was such an awesome guy. Very exciting and encouraging. And smart and nice, at the same time. No wonder he's enjoying what he's doing.

Unfortunately, my camcorder runs out of battery in the middle of the interview (he talks about innovation across the world) Oh, well. We'll definitely catch up for more later, right? :)

In the interview, I ask him about his blogging career, what it's like to blog for a company and now as an independent, a common pattern among innovative companies, and what's up for web companies now, etc. Enjoy the interview!

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I'm Twittering, too.

Danny Kim twdanny — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 08:11:56 +0900

So, yes, I've FINALLY started twittering.

And..

My twitter page is the ugliest I've seen so far. But you can clearly see the TechnoKimchi logo on it. Please let me know if you find an uglier one. Maybe we'll put up an "the ugliest Twitter page" contest :)

Anyhow, as I repeatedly find myself not living up to my own expectations on updating TechnoKimchi, I've come to a compromise: that is to update lightly on Twitter. I know I'm a really late comer to the game, but this will surely make me feel less guilty about myself.

So, follow me and you shall prosper. More interesting stories to come soon!

p.s. I'm in Paris again, so if anyone's still around, let me know :)

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Happy New Year!

Danny Kim twdanny — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:20:10 +0900

So 2008 has finally come to an end and within next few hours, we'll be greeting 2-0-0-9!

I just wanted to say "THANK YOU" to you all for all your support throughout and interests in TechnoKimchi. Although I have not been the most diligent (or even dependable) blogger, what I have actually learned through TechnoKimchi goes far beyond what words can describe.

So, I'm excited about 2009. There are still many cool and awesome things happening around the Internet in Korea and I'm just more than eager to see how my life will change along.

I've made some new years' resolutions already and one of them is to make TechnoKimchi one of the top priorities next year. Hopefully I'll have the tenacity to execute them. :)

The beautiful lady bowing in Korean traditional costume called 한복 (Hanbok) in the picture above is Jang Yoon Jung, one of the best known singers in Korea. Of course, I won't dress and bow to you guys like that, I really want to express how thankful I am.

2008 was personally a very difficult year for me in many ways; at the same time, TechnoKimchi really opened up many ways for me to explore more opportunities out in the world, and especially to meet you!

Expect more from TechnoKimchi; both you and I will enjoy 2009 more ^-^

Happy New Year! 새해 복 많이 받으세요!

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Danny Kim on the Internet Trends in Korea

Danny Kim twdanny — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 02:48:02 +0900

I had a great chance to meet up with Thomas Crampton, a former International Herald Tribune and NYT correspondent and a current blogger who covers the Internet and new media scenes in China. He was also the moderator for the Asian Panel session at Le Web (which I'll cover later).

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 :)

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Korea says, "Goodbye, URL. Hello, Search."

Danny Kim twdanny — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:45:13 +0900

So, I'm back from Paris and Le Web and am trying to get back to normal life despite the jet lag :)

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 :)

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An Interview with Loic Le Meur

Danny Kim twdanny — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:43:22 +0900

I met a great number of great people yesterday at LeWeb and was able to have great conversations with many as well. One of them was intervinewing Loic le Meur, the founder of LeWeb and also the founder of Seesmic.

Loic came to Korea for Open Web Asia and obviously he deeply understands what it means to have global presence on the Web: he's French, doing his business in the Valley, with lots of interests in Asia.

So here is my brief inteview with Loic. It's unedited, but the content is great :)

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Sketching out Le Web '08 Paris

Danny Kim twdanny — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:58:55 +0900

As I said, I'm in paris, attending the Le Web '08 conference. I've decided to update some pictures from the So, I'm in Paris now, attending Le Web '08. It's really great to be here, especially to represent to cool and stylish Internet fellows in Europe! I'm sketching out some scenes from the conference below. I'll do my best to update the conference info.

If you want to talk to me, don't hesitate! Remember, there aren't too many Asian guys around at this conference, so it should be easy for you to spot me :)

See you soon!

An unusual site for a conference. I persnoally love it!

Seesmic's Loic and his wife Geraldine's grand opening.

Mike Arrington of TechCrunch is working hard!

Steve Gillmor is inteviewing Microsoft's Dan'l Lewin on BizSpark.

Nikesh Arora from Google Europe and Loic are talking about the entrepreneurship in Europe. Many questions here were very similar to those discussed at Open Web Asia.

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