Mobile Korea

With the rise of ringtones and the proliferation of increasingly more sophisticated handsets, cell phones are moving ever closer to becoming true mobile music machines. And while the audio quality possible on handsets does not yet rival that of portable music players, the commercial success of ringtones shows that there is promise for driving music sales and the potential for for better applications as the technology allows it.

With these technical capabilities have come some business decisions. How will subscribers pay for this content – per song, on a subscription basis, or some other yet to be devised plan? What is the income model for the content creators such as the musicians and songwriters whose works will now be seen on portable devices? How will the carriers participate? How will the record companies get paid? How can mobile music file transfers be secured against the type of file-swapping endemic to the PC platform?

Making Mobile Music Work: SK Telecom-Music Goes Mobile



Here’s one excellent example of successful mobile music business model, SK Telecom’s ‘MelOn’. South Korea’s largest cellular company, SK Telecom, has provided a mobile music portal service called ‘MelOn’ since the end of 2004. MelOn is the first integrated, wired and wireless, music service that allows users to enjoy music virtually anytime, anywhere using a portable MP3 player, a PC, or a mobile phone.

The main MelOn interface is music download and streaming Internet portal, www.melon.co.kr. The service is akin to a rental service, with users “renting” tracks on a monthly basis for use on various terminals. MelOn users pay a 5000won(US$4.50) monthly subscription to stream music to a PC or wrappers on the music guarantee a subscriber is current, and tracks are erased from the end user’s library at the end of the subscription period. To download tracks onto the handset, users pay for airtime at regular call rates, regardless of the size of the track.

The key to the model is its ubiquitousness, downloads are possible using wireline and wireless platforms, and a relatively affordable monthly subscription fee. SK Telecom acquires the rights from the record companies for music to use as ringtones, ringbacks and full version downloads. Music companies are not necessarily enamored by the scheme, but SK Telecom has generally used its market heft to have its way. To further strengthen its position, SK Telecom acquired Korea’s YBM Seoul Records, reportedly Korea’s largest record company.

The MelOn service has received tremendous response from the marketplace, with the number of purchasers and paying subscribers virtually doubling each month. As of early June 2006, MelOn had recorded almost 4.5million subscribers; the number of paying subscribers that enjoy an unlimited amount of music for a monthly flat fee increased as well, reaching 0.6million. According to SK Telecom, the site ranked first among Korean paid music sites in terms of revenue.

MelOn - TV commercial #1


MelOn - TV commercial #2


MelOn - TV commercial #3







P.S.: I'll dicuss further detailed information about 'MelOn' on the 8th of September, 2006, at the W2forum-Consumer Trends & Technology Insights from Korea & Japan

Much talked about portable Internet service lands deal with three major U.S. companies


Samsung Electronics president Lee Ki-tae, second from left joins hans with Intel executive vice president Sean Maloney, left, Spring Nextel CEO Gary Forsee, third from left, and Motorola CEO Edward Zander at a press conference in New York, Tuesday, to announce their alliance for the launch of WiBro



South Korea’s homegrown portable Internet service, called WiBro here and known as mobile WiMax around the globe, is being deployed in the United States.

Samsung Electronics, one of the major Korean developers of WiBro, Wednesday forged an alliance with three firms; Sprint Nextel, Intel and Motorola for the launch of WiBro in the U.S.

WiBro lets people on the road remain hooked up to the Internet at the speed of a fixed line broadband connection. Its speed is fast enough to download dozens of MP3 files in a minute.

Sprint Nextel, the third largest U.S. cellular service provider, plans to invest as much as $3 billion to commercially roll out the Internet on the go service in 2008.

Sprint aims to have 100 million people covered by the go anywhere Internet application in 2008. A test service will be up and running by the fourth quarter of next year.

Together with Intel and Motorola, Samsung will provide Sprint with base station equipment, terminals and chipsets for WiBro, which debuted in Korea late June.

This is a milestone decision for Samsung and they’re sure Sprint will play a pivotal role in the worldwide initiative for telecom renovation on the desk of WiBro.

Sprint’s move will have an impact for beyond U.S. shores it will help WiBro tap into other nations down the road.

Experts concur that Sprint’s embrace of WiBro will bode well for its expansion.

It is meaningful that the locally developed WiBro is being adopted as a backbone network of the U.S., and other overseas telecom firms are expected to follow Sprint. In other words, WiBro will be able to enjoy a halo effect in its globalization efforts thanks to Sprint’s high profile.

Korea’s dynamic telecom duo KT and SK Telecom embarked on WiBro in late June and the next generation services presently cover some areas of Seoul and Pundang, Kyonggi Province.

KT, the country’s foremost landline operator, will expand the WiBro service range across the capital by the end of this year before going nationwide.

Samsung is developing a WiBro terminal, which can double as a cell phone, with the aim of completing the task early next year, to boost the vitality of the futuristic service.

TU media, a satellite DMB service provider is having fun with ‘Seung’s killer effect’.
In the United States, there's New York Yankees and in England, there's Manchester United and Japan, there's Yomiuri Giants where Korea's hero, Lee Seung Youp(29) is currently playing for. TU media goes on live cover every time when he plays a brilliant role. Thus, its rating and subscribers have increased in substantial amount.

On August, 1st , TU media’s live baseball coverage rating has gone up to 3.12% when Lee Seung Youp hit his four hundredth and ended the affair with pinch-hit two-run homer making it four hundredth and first career homeruns.

Lee Seung Youp’s live game coverage brings tremendous advertising effect which leads to actual data where rating has almost doubled up, 1.75 times greater than the average rating of July’s 1.78%.
People either in the bus or subway, viewing satellite DMB have increased in substantial amount, thus, subscriber base is naturally becoming wider.

TU media showed the great power of satellite DMB through out the citizens of Seoul. People in the Seoul subway viewed the game through satellite DMB, screaming out “Yeah!!!”, when Lee Seung Youp closed the game with two-run homer.
Games played in the midnight hour are rebroadcasted during the office-going hour.

According to TU media, if satellite DMB is exposed during the office-going hour when shower effect is the greatest, it has ten times stronger impact and influence than terrestiral-TV commercial.

Sports related contents are definetely killer contents and TU media has proven the fact by the result of its live coverage of sports games. TU media will go live starting the 19th with opening game of England Premiere League where Park Ji-Sung(Manchester United) is playing.

TU commercial

MLB into the world of TU : 34 channels only $13 a month





P.S.: I'll dicuss further detailed information about 'TU media' on the 8th of September, 2006, at the W2forum-Consumer Trends & Technology Insights from Korea & Japan

Case : South Korea
What effects that gaming culture has on the members of its society;
Gaming addiction vs gaming professionalism


How serious is gaming addiction?

According to the Washington Post, 2.4% of South’s Korea’s population aged 9-39 suffers from gaming addiction. Another 10.2% are considered to be borderline cases.
In 2005 alone, ten people died from game addiction related causes.
A couple in Incheon, Korea was arrested in June 2005 when they left their 4-month old daughter alone at home for five hours while going to play World of Warcraft at a PC Baang(Internet café). The baby died of suffocation from turning over on her stomach while the parents were gone.

A number of reasons are blamed for the rise of online gaming addiction in South Korea. They range from the longer amount of time needed to finish extensive gaming objectives or storylines, to inexpensive Internet access (averaging $30.00 a month for household high-speed Internet services), to a society used to living in small apartments or homes trying to escape unfulfilling daily lifestyles.

The Washington Post says, “Gaming addiction is in part because young people here suffer from acute stress as they face educational pressures said to far exceed those endured by their peers in other countries. It is not uncommon, for instance, for South Korean students to be forced by their parents into four to five hours of daily after-school tutoring. With drug abuse and teenage sex considered rare in the socially conservative country, escape through electronic games can be a huge attractive outlet.”


What is addiction?

Addiction is currently defined as a behavior over which an individual has impaired control with harmful consequences (Cottler, 1993; Rounsaville et al.,1993 in Robert West, 2001). Thus, individuals who recognize that the behavior is harming them or those whom they care about find themselves unable to stop engaging in the behavior when they try to do so (Heather, 1998 in Robert West, 2001). The severity of the medical, psychological and social harm that can be caused by addiction, together with the fact that it violates the individual's freedom of choice, means that it is appropriate to consider it to be a form of psychiatric disorder: a disorder of motivation (Robert West, 2001).

Addiction typically involves initial exposure to a stimulus followed by behaviors seeking to repeat the experience. After a number of repetitions of the behavior-stimulus sequence, the addiction becomes established.

The starting point for a view of addiction as excessive appetite is that there exists a range of objects and activities which are particularly risky for humans, who are liable to develop such strong attachment to them that they then find their ability to moderate their behavior significantly diminished.

Addiction, as an attachment to an appetitive activity, so strong that a person finds it difficult to moderate the activity, despite the fact that it is causing harm (Jim Orford, 2001).


What are the signs of gaming addiction?
- PC/Video game use characterized by intense feelings of pleasure and guilt.
- Obsessed and pre occupied about being on PC even when disconnected.
- Hours playing increasingly, seriously disrupting family, work, social life.
- Lying about PC Game use.
- Feelings of withdrawal, anger depression when not on or when uninvolved with game.
- Large phone or credit card bills due to online services.
- Fantasy life replaces emotional life with partner.


The South Korean government, in support of fighting game addiction, has taken several steps:

The Korean Agency for Digital Opportunity & Promotion operates centers where people can go to for help on gaming and internet addiction. In 2003, its forty centers counseled 2,243 people. In 2004, KADO counseled 8,978 people. Over 10,000 people were admitted to therapy programs in 2005. KADO’s programs consist of alternative recreational programs and group therapy.

South Korea’s Ministry of Information and Communication is also opening similar centers at universities and is funding anti-addiction courses at South Korea universities.

Not all intense gaming is a bad thing. A few intense gamers put their time in, and it becomes a successful venture for them: professional gaming. South Korea’s government is helping fund construction of the World’s first e-sports stadium, to be completed in 2008, where big screens will soon display big competitions.


Can gaming creat new revenue sources and have positive impact to its society?



The most successful professional gamers in South Korea are currently playing Starcraft, FIFA Series, and Warcraft Ш. Fewer than twenty players in the Korean Pro-Gamer Association make six figures a year, while about fifty out of its total 170 members make $40,000-$60,000.

Two cable TV networks, known as Ongamenet and MBCgame, compete for viewers with their own 24-hour programming dedicated to PC, console gaming and both cover South Korea’s professional gaming scene. Fierce gaming competitions are held, backed by major corporate sponsors such as SK Telecom’s T1, KTF’s Magicns, Pantech’s EX, CJ’s Entus, Samsung’s Khan and STX’s Soul providing interactive benefits for the team as well as for the enterprises’ name recognition. Game studios overflow with live audiences trying to catch a glimpse at players who are practically given celebrity status

Ongamenet, a 24-hour PC/console gaming cable channel. Their number one program is called Ongamenet Starleague, which is a three-month long Starcraft tournament broadcast live every Friday beginning at 7:00pm. Players in the final round compete for a top cash prize of $80,000. Second and third place winners can win up to $50,000 and $30,000, respectively.
Sky Proleague is a year long, with eleven Starcraft teams, eleven rounds, and a $100,000 dollar ultimate prize. Over 120,000 spectators attend the final match. It has four studio facilities, and is in the top twenty channels watched out of South Korea’s ninety-nine cable TV channels.
MBCGame covers Starcraft, Warcraft Ш, FIFA series games, CounterStrike, Winning 11, Age of Empire 3, and Dead or Alive.



Competition to win audiences among broadcasters already became fierce. It’s important to keep in mind that corporate sponsorship is involved as well, allocating millions of dollars in prizes and ad revenue.

Professionals and amateurs will gather at Seoul for the national qualifiers of the World Cyber Games (WCG) Aug.5-6. Organized by an affiliate company of Samsung Group, it has been the premiere international computer and video gaming festival since 2001. At the World Cyber Games (WCG), gold medal winning gamers bring in as much as $80,000 per tournament. The Olympic of video games was inaugurated in 2000 in Seoul, and now hosts players from sixty-seven nations. This year’s grand finals will be held at the F1 racing track of Monza, in northern Italy, in October, for the first time in Europe.