A week in tech, June 9 - 15

Korea

Internet
• Yahoo disclosed that it would pay $60 million for the acquisition of some 10-percent stake in South Korean e-commerce provider Gmarket. Yahoo, noting that the company does not have a leadership position in e-commerce auctions in South Korea, said it is looking to Gmarket’s leadership position in the country as valuable. Yahoo said that it would purchase the stake from venture capital firm Oak Investment Partners, which it said was the only significant outside institutional investor in Gmarket.

• Gmarket Inc., an e-market company, announced it’s filing for an IPO of up to $100 million in American depositary shares. The company said it plans to use the net proceeds from the sale of its shares in the IPO to upgrade and expand its network and to conduct marketing activities. Some of the funds will be used for working capital and other general corporate purposes. Goldman Sachs International, Cowen & Co. and Thomas Weisel Partners LLC are listed as the underwriters for the offering. For the three months ended March 31, the company posted net income of US$2 million and revenue of US$29.1 million. Gmarket did not disclose details about the number of shares to be offered or an estimated price range for the IPO.

• TMSBroadcasting, and NCsoft North America announced the creation of Lineage Radio, the official online radio station devoted exclusively to supporting the LineageR II gaming community in North America. LineageRadio.com will feature a 24/7 audio stream, with exclusive Lineage II interviews, news and features. Industry observers are saying the Lineage Radio will set a new standard for Internet radio especially for gamers. The agreement between TMSBroadcasting and NCsoft is expected to bring listeners contests, podcasts, events, and access to the development process, as well as interviews highlighting key members within the Lineage II community, including both fans of the title and NCsoft staff alike.

• A government report indicated that South Korea's e-commerce sales posted a decline in April due mainly to seasonal factors. The National Statistical Office (NSO) said e-commerce transactions in the country hit 1 trillion won ($1 billion) in April, a figure that represents a 5-percent decline from 1.1 trillion won ($1.1 billion) a month earlier. The seasonal factors include the return of children to school, which increased demand for computer-related items, books and clothing. The NSO said that from a year earlier, April sales were up 31.2 percent. The report noted that there were eighteen more cyber-shopping malls in April than in the previous month, bringing the overall number to 4,421.

• Major multinational online game publishers like Mforma, Gameloft and Electronic Arts are reportedly set to tap the South Korean mobile game market. EA Korea revealed its plans to expand the business from game consoles and PC online games into mobile games by leveraging Jam.com, a mobile game provider recently bought by the company. The company has decided to introduce a mobile version of the football game FIFA. Mforma, which bought Java Game and Mobile Game three years ago, said it is aiming to increase its presence in the market this year. The company has decided to change the name of the company to Hands On Korea in the third quarter of this year as a part of efforts to boost its mobile game brand image. Gameloft said it readying the launching of some 25 mobile titles including four 3D games in the second half of this year. The company already introduced ‘Brothers in Arms’ war game, and plans to roll out a series of 3D sports including baseball and football via SK Telecom.

• CJ Internet said that 'Sudden Attack' developed by GameHI and serviced by its own game portal Netmarble continues to make record-breaking 120,000 concurrent accesses. The company ascribes the growth to the sudden rise of users in the middle of explosive popularity of the low-gravity map newly released and growing recognition and popularity of the company. The low-gravity map named 'G-Cube' is said to give a unique excitement in shooting as the battle is done in space. Along with this, a voice chatting system that was updated is an important contributor to the popularity of the game. Industry analysts are saying 'Sudden Attack' will be a source of revenues that will contribute to a huge profit in the second half of the year after being commercialized this month. CJ Internet said it plans to activate contests related to e-sports between regions and generations.


Media, Entertainment and Gaming
• Korea Telecom Hitel (KTH), a South Korean web portal company, announced that it would provide video contents for Wonder Zone, a KT WiBro video contents service. KTH will make the most of the wireless broadband environment and deal with unique subjects that movies or TV can‘t touch on. Unlike other online VOD (Video-on Demand) services, Wonder Zone is an exclusive content-producing brand for WiBro and will provide various programmes covering comedy, humor and documentary genres.

• NCsoft announced the release of a free expansion to City of Villains and City of Heroes, Issue 7: “Destiny Manifest,” in both North America and Europe. In addition to level 40 to 50 content for villains, the new expansion adds the opportunity for villains to wreak havoc in new “mayhem missions,” and a player-versus-player (PvP) zone where villains and heroes clash to control a dynamically changing battlefield. The company said the expansion is free to both City of Heroes and City of Villains’ subscribers. The new City of Villains 40 to 50 level content includes more than 300 new missions and a new zone for level 40 and higher players. NCsoft said the free expansion also includes new base features including storage items, empowerment stations, super group banners, and base color tinting. The expansion provides a new set of costume options and adds “sweeping” art and graphics improvements to City of Heroes.


Mobile/Wireless
• Samsung and LG are competing in the Indian mobile market, with Samsung Electronics having rolled out India's first wide screen CDMA phone, Wideo, after LG Electronics launched its new GSM phone in India. Samsung, in its release of Wideo, said it is valuing its association with Tata Indicom and looks to boosting Tata Indicom's handset portfolio. LG Electronics launched its feature packed GSM phone in India, making it the first GSM in the country. The device is fitted with features that include a pre-installed English-to-English dictionary and a password-protected folder application called "data bank," which enables consumers to safely store confidential information on their phones.

• The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) of South Korea announced that South Korean and British companies have started test service of terrestrial DMB of Korea and DVB-IP of the UK for seven months until January 2007. Like DMB, DVB-IP is also based on Eureka-147, but adopts IP method, using Window Media Encoder. The mobile TV test service will be conducted in London, with a group of British experts to conduct a comparative experiment. During the test period, Korean DMB handsets will be provided, which the MIC expects will contribute to Korean DMB’s penetration into the UK. Observers noted that the FIFA World-Cup is a factor that could lead to DMB boom.

• K-Netpi announced the launching of a mobile game displaying as many as 40 characters on a 2-inch screen. The mobile game is called "Suhoji Mussang Battle," a large battle game with up to 40 characters played at the same time, via SK Telecom, KTF, and LG Telecom. The company said the new game delivers 3D-like effects in distance and space over 2D mobile handsets.

• Pantech Group announced signing up on a contract on ODM manufacturing of CDMA phones with Nokia. Pantech & Curitel revealed that the contract valued at US\\$129 million would allow the company to ship CDMA camera phones and EV-DO phones to the Finnish phone maker. Curitel supplied mobile phones to Nokia last year, too. The contract will be implemented from June to December 2006 and the phones will be on sale in North America. According to Pantech Group, the contract would assure stable sales and order intake in the region.

Semiconductors
• Analog Devices, a supplier of high-performance semiconductors for signal processing applications, announced its acquisition of South Korean DMB tuner chipset maker Integrant Technologies in a deal valued at $160 million dollars. Integrant holds more than 100 patents or patent applications around the world including, among others, the technology to convert RF signals to baseband frequencies directly. It will be part of Analog Devices as it deals with high-speed signal processing whose innovations in RF design focuses on receivers and transceivers for broadband wireless, satellite radio and terrestrial and cable TV. Analog Devices said that it will acquire all the shares of Integrant through 60 days of due processes.

Telecommunications
• SK Telecom said it is seeking to expand in markets elsewhere in Asia, especially in China. Analysts see this as the firm’s response to the saturated domestic market in the country. The report said SK Telecom is reportedly making plans to take a 10 percent stake in China Unicom, China’s second-largest mobile company. Some reports even disclosed that SK Telecom would shell out up to $1.1 billion for the China Unicom stake. SK Telecom is now is in search for advisers to work with them on the proposed deal. Sprint Nextel of the U.S. and KDDI Corp. of Japan were some of those foreign firms interested in Unicom.

• In what is seen as another level of market competition, Telecoms carries such as KT, KTF and Hanaro Telecom are rushing to roll out differentiated services adopting Wi-Bro wireless internet, 3.5G HSDPA and TV portals, putting final touches on brand promotion and new price plans. Wi-Bro and HSDPA offerings are set for some W30,000 ($31) monthly, and Hanaro Telecom has decided to provide TV portal service for around W10,000 ($10) as earlier announced. KT said it is naming the new Wi-Bro service, launching ads and writing policies. KT is now considering combining the basic rate and pay-as-you-use; offering handset subsidies for notebooks and PDAs; and lowering prices for convergence service. KTF is also making moves after moving up the launch of HSDPA service from next month to this month, with the company changing its brand service. Hanaro Telecom disclosed that it is putting final touches on brand marketing and policies and procedures ahead of the launch of its TV portal service set for early next month. The company is now weighing between "Hana TV" and "Hanofos TV," and seeking to highlight differentiating features of TV portal service through advertising campaigns.

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