A week in tech

Korea

Internet
• The market for online job placement portals will top W60 billion ($63.4 million) this year due to its fast growth. JobKorea reported that the sale of its first quarter increased by 85.3 percent to W5.8 billion ($6.1 million), while Incruit posted a 104-percent increase from the same period last year to W4.6 billion ($4.8 million) in sales in the first quarter according to Rankey, a firm that does surveys on Internet sites. Market share in the first quarter, JobKorea accounted for 33.3 percent, Carrier and Incruit 19.8 percent and 15.7 percent, respectively.

• Industry experts said that the country's two leading internet service providers, KT and Hanaro Telecom, are now facing negative growth. Analysts are also warning that without new service plans or business strategies, they may be facing an even worse scenario. While the number of subscribers increased, sales continued dropping. KT has maintained some 50 percent share of the market, while other firms demonstrated its aim to gain on the large rival, fueling competition for price-cutting and promotions. KT saw sales in the broadband internet area peak in the second quarter of this year, and posted minus growth for the last three quarters since then. In the third quarter of last year, KT posted a loss of W12 billion ($12.6 million) versus a net increase of 80,000 subscribers, which is a significant drop from the second quarter. In the following fourth quarter and the first quarter of this year, it saw both the number of subscribers and sales fall. Hanaro Telecom, which expanded the customer base by some 800,000 after a merger with Thrunet early this year, is also facing weak sales. The company posted a loss in the second quarter of last year despite a growing number of subscribers. It posted a slight increase in sales in the following quarter versus a drop in the customer base. Hanaro is expected to maintain sales growth in the first quarter of this year on the merger with Thrunet and modest spending on marketing. Powercomm, which launched broadband internet service in September last year, is expected to increase the number of subscribers to 450,000 in the first quarter of this year.

• A survey of 8 listed firms and 2 non-listed firms in the internet media and game service area conducted by the Electronics Times found that the top 10 firms' cash reserve stood at W1.1 trillion ($1.1 billion) in March this year. These firms are NCsoft, NHN, Webzen, Neowiz, CJ Internet, Daum Communication, Empas, Nexon, KTH and Yahoo! Korea, the last two being unlisted. Industry analysts describe these ten firms as driven by financial power, pushing them to seek new growth engines in both domestic and international market. The firms are reportedly using two approaches in their growth: either through mergers and acquisitions or through an expansion into overseas markets which include North America, Europe and its neighbours China, and Japan.

Mobile/Wireless• KTF disclosed that it will invest around W780 billion ($824.4 million) to build an upgraded wireless communications network across the nation. The investment is higher than KTF's earlier plan to spend over W500 billion ($528.6 million) on building such networks in 45 cities by the end of June this year. The move is aimed at seeking to accelerate its transition from 2G- to 3G-telephony in the local market dominated by SK Telecom. As of the end of February, KTF held 32.2 percent of the local mobile service market, making it the second-largest company among three mobile carriers. SK Telecom has 50.8 percent, while data showed the smallest LG Telecom Ltd. has 17.1 percent of total subscribers. In a bid to keep a step ahead in the emerging 3G markets and avoid competition in already-saturated sectors of the market, KTF has been pursuing the promising W-CDMA market.

• Mobile phone users in South Korea will be able to replace their handsets with new ones based on W-CDMA technology without giving up their phone numbers, according to the country’s Ministry of Information. Under the so-called number portability system, mobile phone users will be able to retain their phone numbers even if they change their handsets into W-CDMA phones. The ministry said the regulatory change will be enforced soon but did not disclose any more details.

Media, Entertainment and Gaming
• Blizzard Entertainment, a leading game developer, announced that it cut the monthly fee by 20 percent for its flagship online game "World of Warcraft," a move that is expected to touch off a new round of price-cutting campaigns by South Korean players. Blizzard, which remains third in the country's online multi-user network game rankings, announced it will charge W19,800 ($20) for a 30-day package, down from W24,750 ($26). The game giant's move is interpreted as a signal that the country’s online gaming industry will see major developers switch to the pricing policy favouring less than W20,000 ($21) per month. But the price-cutting pressure is forecast to undercut smaller, cash-strapped game developers.

• Hanbitsoft’s new multi-player online role playing game "Granado Espada (GE)" is already enjoying phenomenal popularity in Japan, with more than 100,000 members within seven hours after the launch of open service, according to Hanbit Ubiquitous Entertainment, the local subsidiary of the game firm.

Telecommunications
• SK Telecom, the Korea's biggest mobile operator, announced the launching of a pilot service of WiBro, a South Korean variant of mobile WiMAX next month, with the commercial service to follow soon. SKT said that the main service area will be Seoul even as it plans to set up 10 hot zones around colleges and subway stations by the end of this year and broaden the service area to 84 cities across the country by 2009.

Semiconductors
• Samsung Electronics revealed the development of 2GB MMCMicro. It is said to possess the world’s largest capacity as a memory card for mobile handsets. MMCMicro is a micro memory card for the next generation mobile handsets at a quarter of the standard MMC, the size of a fingernail. The product is able to store 1000 pictures, six movies of high quality, and 500 songs for MP3. Its particular feature is diverse vital functions for mobile devices like high-speed data transmission, which is 3 times faster than same-sized memory cards, and uses a sixth of the energy and dual voltage consumption. Samsung Electronics, producing a variety of MMCMicros from 32MB to 512MB, is to start mass-production of 1GB and 2GB memory cards having developed in early this year.

Information Technology
• The world's first next-generation communication-broadcasting convergence service test bed adopting Wi-Bro and terrestrial DMB will be built in Jeju-do, according to the Jeju government and KT. The local government and the country's largest telecom carrier announced their plan to build a high-tech IT city with ubiquitous service capabilities in the island by the end of this year, combining Wi-Bro features to the existing next-generation mobile research testbed the Jeju government opened in January this year.

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