Mobile Korea

With the kind of job that I’m in, I am constantly forced to move from one place to another. For this reason, I have connected my laptop computer to our company’s server so that I can access the necessary data from anywhere I want. I thought this was very convenient and even though it’s not a new concept, I have encountered many people being amazed by it.

Today however, I want to tell you about an upgraded service provided by SK Telecom. Telecommunication industry is so saturated that it’s difficult for MNOs in Korea to acquire new consumers and it’s difficult to earn revenue from the voice services anymore. Therefore, SK Telecom is focusing on providing various data services and for this reason, their revenues coming from the data service is higher than any other MNOs in the world.

This upgraded service, which is a part of their data service, is almost the same concept as the above, but now I can now access the computer via my cell phone! Frankly speaking, constantly carrying around my laptop was pretty heavy at times, but I had no problem carrying around my cell phone. The name of the service is called “Mobile Mini-PC” and the way it works is this: First, I have to apply for this service via my cell phone. Once that’s done, I download and install a program from an online site which allows me to link my cell phone with the computer. After that’s done, voila! I can now access my server computer via my cell phone! It also allows up to 5 people to access the computer and also allows transfer of files from my computer to other computers.

This service in a sense is similar to those provided by ORB (which provides the user with instant access to photos, music, videos, live television, and other digital content on their home PC at anytime and from any internet-connected device, such as a mobile phone, PDA or laptop) or that of Sling Media (which enables TV broadcastings to be viewed by PC, PDA, Cell phones, etc through networking). However, “Mobile Mini-PC” is more business oriented, which differentiates itself from these two companies.

As this service is expected to start tomorrow, it only seems yesterday how amazed I was to be able to check my email via my cell phone. As a person involved in this telecommunication industry, I am excited but at the same time worried about the increased dynamics in mobile industry. I’m excited that it’s advancing rapidly but worried about having to constantly be updated in this area. Whether I want it or not, MNOs from all over the world will continue to provide improved services such as this and many changes affecting our daily lives will occur.

What’s your perspective on how this service industry would turn out to be?

T-DMB (Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) Phone meets the golden age. In second quarter, the sales of T-DMB Phone increased about 3.4% comparing to first quarter.

That is interesting results because total number of 3G service phone user keep increasing and KTF, one of MNO in Korea, focus their capability on 3G services such as Video call.
However, most of T-DMB phone is concentrated on 2G service!

KTF tries to advertise the diverse function of 3G service.
By contrast, SKT and LGT, MNO in Korea focusing their ability on 2G service, promote their 2G service with excellent design and T-DMB service. Prada Phone is a good example.


Some experts said there will be keen competition between 3G and 2G service soon. It is very hard to estimate how situation will develop because this competition has never happened before.

If you concentrate your attention on how Korean TMT market is changed, you can get some insights about how your home country will be changed.

This August, I am speaking at iMobicon 2007 on the landscape of 'Korean Social Networking and Mobile TV'. If you are not familiar with iMobicon, it is an international conference organized by Informa only focuing on Korean Mobile industry.
Most major mobile related companies will participate such as SK Telecom, KTF,Cyworld and many more.

You can find some of the most fascinating stories and dynamics of Korean mobile industry.Any one thinking of participating in iMobicon, I am happy to keep in touch in advance.

Story: Husband come back to Korea after 2 years and his wife and son come to airport to meet him. His wife tries to jump into husband but..



Video call is not a dream any more in Korea

Have you ever dreamed calling your girl friend with seeing her face?
If yes, Your dream has already came true in Korea!

Now Koreans can use video conversation service.

You can see where she is, what she does and whom she meets by just calling her.
As you can see in video clip, picture quality is quite good and it operates both inside and outside.

Video call users gradually increase and are being common for Koreans through 3.5G HSDPA network.


But, be careful not to show her your 'extra' girl with video call

Prada Phone has made its market debut in Korea about a month ago. I was also one of the people who were expecting it to come and recently I found an interesting article on Prada phone.

In Korea, it was provided initially by LG Telecom (No 3 Player in Korea with Market share of 17%. The leading player SK Telecom has 50% of M/S and KTF the 2nd Player around 33%) followed by SK Telecom. It is regarded by many industry analysts that LG Telecom is making the best use of its sister company, LG Electronics who developed Prada phone with Prada.

According to the market statistics released by LG Telecom, most of the Prada Phone was bought by the group who were in their 20s and 30s. 80% of the Prada Phone sold since its debut were in this group and 40s group followed who accounted 11%.

The ratio between the sexes was Male (60%) and Female (40%). It can be explained that most of the early adopter were male dominated group. But the report said that the Female customers were rising sharply these days.

Since its launch in May, 25,000 Prada phone has been sold for the period less than a month. LG Telecom and SK Telecom both said that they are now selling more than 1,000 units per day. LG Electronics expects that the total sales target of 200,000 this year looks like an easily achievable goal.

To keep its luxurious image, LG Electronics plays strict marketing strategies and hence can not see the advertisement in the main advertisement medium. Instead they are focusing heavily on ‘Celebrity Marketing’ and many of the Top celebrities were invited to use the Prada Phone including Sophie Marceau of France and Jiwoo Choi of Korea.

Have you ever regret after missing your favourite TV programme while you were stuck in the heavy traffic? Have you ever supposed it would be much better if you have your own TV and thus not fighting for the TV with your brother or sister?

If yes, here is good news. As long as you possess you can watch TV with mobile phone.

There are mainly two different kinds in Korea but this video demonstrates the streaming type. The newly rolled out HSDPA technology (called SHOW or 3G+) helps to upgrade the service quality significantly.

Cyworld, Korean based social networking service, is the one of the most successful ones in the world. In the past, PC and proper internet access were required to use Cyworld. However, today’s cutting edge mobile technology actually extends its reach to everyone’s pocket. In other words, we can ubiquitously access to Cyworld with our mobile phone. No more boundaries exist between wired and wireless services.

I uploaded a picture to my cyworld through my PC and checked it through my mobile phone.

This video clip is the moment at which Norwegian journalists sang a song to thank me for helping themselves during a study trip.

The Norwegian Journalist group has visited Korea for 5 days to learn and experience in the advanced TMT (Technology/media/telecom) sector. I organized the whole trip for them and also gave a brief lecture to make them understand easily at the beginning of the trip. Keeping the schedule, they were very interested in and satisfied with experiences and lessons especially in the developed Korean mobile skills and business system they got during the trip. It was an absolutely fantastic work and made me excited because this is one of the reasons why I set up my company, Veyond.

Actually, even though the group already knew Korea is one of the leading countries in the TMT sector and really wanted to visit, they had no connection in Korea to make a schedule. They looked for someone who can introduce the Korean TMT sector and fortunately found me at a webpage of the wireless world forum in which I was a guest speaker about Korean mobile.

While they discussed the trip with me by email, I made sure them they found a perfect partner in Korea and tried to give them valuable experiences as much as possible in the short period. The schedule was set up to visit media, telecom companies and some exhibition places. Also it provided some chances for Korean cultures such as a musical, attraction, and shopping mall. Thanks to both sides’ efforts, the trip was successful and there were a lot of interests more than I expected wherever they visited. Due to unforgettable memory, we still have a good relationship.

I strongly believe that there are lots of people who are interested in Korea TMT sector. If there is any opportunity later, I hope to help them again and give them something more than just valuable.

Cyworld, which is a Korean social network site, has been introduced on an American university text book published in this February as a world wide famous social online community service.

The name of the book is “Information Systems Today : Managing in the Digital World” published by the Prentice Hall. This book is used to deliver information of general digital economy systems and its new trends to US students majoring in Economics and Business Management.

On this book, Cyworld is evaluated as an online community service that has created a new economy system via social network same as MySpace in US.

GSM Association goes with KTF’s mobile payment service


A mobile payment service proposed by Korean operator KTF is uniting the world's leading service providers. The GSM Association announced at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on the 13th that it will launch a“Pay-Buy Mobile Initiative”as suggested by the Korean mobile operator. The GSM Association comprises about 888 member companies, including service providers, equipment and terminal manufacturers.

Once the agreement comes into force, consumers can purchase goods and services anywhere in the world using their mobile payment enabled handsets. The mobile payments will be made using a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) / Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) card in the phone and contactless Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. Fourteen mobile operators including KTF, Cingular Wireless, China Mobile, and NTT DoCoMo are participating in the initiative.

KTF will lead the initiative and is planning to conduct an end-to-end trial in Korea within this year. In addition, LG Electronics will provide handsets for the initial trial in Korea and Mastercard will also take part. Last year, the GSM Association suggested the global application of NFC, the technology used to link mobile devices to payment and contactless systems. Robert Conway, president of the GSM Association said: “Through the KTF led Pay-Buy Mobile Initiative, users will benefit from the ability to purchase items in a secure and convenient way from the comfort of their own mobile phones.”

Last March, RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong) asked me for an interview on Mobile TV in Korea. RTHK producer Annie, who was in charge of ‘Media Watch’, visited South Korea to film the competitiveness of Korean Mobile TV which was commercialized in for the first in the Globe. (You can get more information on Korean Mobile TV market and its development from www.tdmb.org)


My interview was focused on providing them the newest trends and insights from Korean Mobile TV experiences. Once the Hong Kong TV people finished filming on Korean mobile TV industry for a whole one week, they told me that they really impressed about the advancement of Korean Mobile TV industry.


As RTHK were not able to have the prior knowledge on Korean mobile industry, My company, Veyond Partners also provided relevant support on arranging the adequate players of Mobile TV which are Samsung, TU Media, KBS, U1 Media, iStation, Ministry of Communication, Korean Broadcasting Commission.

I heard from Annie (who became a very close friend during her stay in Korea) that the Hong Kong audiences were really interested on Korea's Mobile TV and also some Hong Kong companies expressed interests on Korea’s mobile TV experiences once the program were televised in 10th March in Hong Kong. (You can find it from RTHK homepage www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/tv/cmedia_watch/20070310.html)


This is the sample clip that I appeared and I will try to upload some more later.

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.

Nexonmobile is to concurrently roll out three games in genre of casual game, sports game, and role playing game aiming to dominate the market in summer. The company targets diverse age groups with 'Crazy Arcade B&B 2007', 'Crazy Baseball' a mobile games based on the popular online game'Crazy Arcade' and 'Epic Chronicle II' a large-scaled RPG game.




'Crazy Arcade B&B 2007', the leader of three games, is an action puzzle game based on the online game 'Crazy Arcade B&B' and, in which monsters, objects, item, and map themes with diverse characters not less than the online version appear. And it doubles excitement recreating 'Bula' an online version mission map as a quest for friends.

KARTRIDER into the Mobile Phone


'Crazy Baseball' a mobile baseball game is made to enjoy a game with a team that user forms with friendly characters like Baezzi, Marid, Digini. User can use items used in the online version of Crazy Arcade like Buster, Water-fly, and spaceship to a baseball game.

'Epic Chronicle II' representing a dramatic RPG game is said that the outstanding graphic and unique system of the game exceeded the limit of a mobile RPG.

LG Mobile has been relatively low in market share but recently due to their stylish and breakthrough design, 'Chocolate Phone', they have blockbuster in the making. LG Mobile finally hit the sweet spot in the faddish mobile phone market. The Chocolate garnered industry accolades such as the prestigious European 2006 Reddot Design and IF awards for its exellence in design and user-interface, and has been drawing a lot of orders from distributors. And the handset was ranked the best selling mobile phone by Carphone Warehouse, Europe's biggest mobile phone retail chain.

LG Mobile is promoting its name recognition to a much higher standard via '2006 LG Action Sport' tournament, combining handset and extreme sport. The largest world scale extreme sport tournament, 'LG Action Sport Championship' draws impressive attention and it cut the first tape in Netherlands. LG Mobile is in session of '2006 LG Action Sport European Tour' hosting the tournamet for two days(July 14~15th) in Dance Valley, on the outskirt of Amsterdam, Netherlnands. Thus, to enhance brand image which implies challenge and youth.

The LG Action Sports World Tour was created to tie this global phenonmenon together into one global circuit that spreads the gospel of action sports. Designed to showcase these incredible sports to new audiences, to build heroes, and to help launch new careers for tomorrow's brightest stars, the LG Action Sports World Tour is the only global multi-sport series bringing A-list talent to a cohesive set of contests on multiple continents.



All New Chocolate Phone-LG KV6000

In the event, LG Mobile is using SMS via handset and drawing substantial interests from European youngsters through carrying out preview exhibits of 'Chocolate Phone' which is one of the hottest model around the world from exclusively made for 'Chocolate Phone' handset booth.

LG Mobile expects the Chocolate's popularity will help expand its reach in Europe for the new generation, where sales are less than half those in the U.S.A. This year LG Mobile seeks to sell 70 million handsets, with GSM phones making up more than half of the total. The company sold 55 million phones last year. It's vital for LG Mobile to boost its European, espeically new generation, if it is to achieve its target of edging past either Samsung or Motorola to become the world's No.3 by 2008 or 2009.


LG Action Sport - Amsterdam, Netherlands



The LG Action Sports program is typical of LG Mobile event: Work patiently and strategically and strive to be the mobile leader by putting out the best products with a long-term vision and focusing on new generation to be the next future consumer. You won't want to miss even a second of these amazing events. Keep your eyes out for the 2006 LG Action Sports World Tour. It just might be coming to your town next!

Lee Yoon-yeol who is attached to one of the professional Starcraft online game teams, PANTECH EX, a front man of the team comes into the spotlight by German financial paper, Handelsblatt. Only 21 years old, the progamer is making more money than the usual exucutives. Lee's annual income is over $800,000 and the number of his fan club members are skyrocketing to 170,000 members. In Korea, it's already an old fairy tale, that progamers are loved by people as to famous sports star or singers.

Through PANTECH-EX's player, Lee Yoon-yeol, Handelsblatt has concentrated the spotlight on PANTECH's interrelated distinctive marketing and Korea's e-sport industry. Annually, PANTECH-EX is sponsored around $1,500,000 by wireless mobile handset manufacturer, PANTECH.

There are 3 professional channels, broadcasting only computer games and 11 other professional Starcraft online game teams mostly attached to large enterprises.

Korean government is encouraging domestic game developers to march with a game boom phenomenon.

This year, PANTECH's interrelated enterprise has opened up a market in supplying 3G handsets to German mobile communication operator, E-plus. Armed with state of the art technology and design, mega-pixel camera phone has released in France, drawing steady interests from Europeans.


Shinhan 2006 Season 1 OSL (Ongamenet Star League) OPENING

Helio is a joint venture between SK Telecom, Korea's leading mobile communications company, and EarthLink, the nation's next generation Internet service provider. The company is capitalized with $440 million of partner investments. Helio Guarantees total happiness in services.

Starting October, SK Telecom will concentrate on global operation to enhance 3G network access. Samsung will supply premium class CDMA handsets to Helio. In addition to supply of handsets, as CDMA wireless mobile operator, Sprint's communication network standard meets compatible, Samsung is planning to provide three types of premium class handsets with built in enhanced service function to Helio.

Samsung has shown outstanding support as VK went bankrupt. Starting 4th quarter, Helio will reorganize its main line-up to Pantech and Samsung. Since, Samsung has much higher name recognition than VK and Pantech, they're expecting to have quite an impact in drawing substantial subscribers.


TV commercial specially targeted for Korean Americans


TV commercial specially targeted for Americans