Subject: Korean Games & Mobile
Category: Computers > Games
Asked by: davidwainwright-ga
List Price: $100.00 Posted: 04 Jul 2002 10:52 PDT
Expires: 03 Aug 2002 10:52 PDT
Question ID: 36550

Why are on-line games so popular in Korea? Some people say it is due
to broadband connectivity but I think they are wrong. Games has driven
the take up of broadband. Europe & the US has not seen anything like
the success of games in Korea. Now mobile games are takign off too.

Can anyone pinpoint what is unique to Korea?


Answer

Subject: Re: Korean Games & Mobile
Answered By: lot-ga on 04 Jul 2002 19:56 PDT
Rated:
Hello David Wainwright
.
INTRO
Broadband penetration in Korea is according to Nielsen/NetRatings in
eMarketer 2001 put it around 50% of households, contrasted to Hong
Kong and Canada with 40%, U.S. at 7% and the U.K. at 3%. Page views
per month were also exceptionally high for Korea at 2,164 compared to
678 for the U.S. and 479 for the U.K.
source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/Your_Business/...,290069,00.html
.
Korea?s incredible broadband figures is due to the fact that the
Government is heavily subsidising the rollout and playing a primary
role.
.
"The importance of the government's role in deployment of broadband
cannot be underestimated," said Jeong Seon Seol, information and
communications counselor at the Korean Embassy.

.
...The Korean government, for instance, has made about $77 million in
loans available to fund private networks since 1998. The Korean
government plans to invest about $926 million by 2005 to help deploy
broadband networks around the country.
.
...High-bandwidth Internet networks are treated as value-added
services in South Korea, and are hence free of most regulations. In
addition, Seol said South Korea has had few copyright disputes since
record companies, recording artists, and other content providers there
are happy to have their works distributed online.
.

That's not the case in the United States, where the movie and
recording industries have been fighting with the consumer electronics
and PC industries over copy protection schemes aimed at preventing
online pirating of new films and music. Some observers said the
copyright disputes have stymied development of compelling
applications, thereby depressing U.S. demand for broadband services.?
.
?Generally speaking, they are well educated and literate. And
technology has been integrated into their culture in many different
ways. Already proficient in text messaging by cell phone, and having
mastered various other technological ways for "keeping in touch,"
participating actively in on-line communities is becoming second
nature.?
.
source: http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:SCbQC...&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
.

The fact that 95% people in Korea who have an internet connection,
access it through a broadband connection
source: http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/htm...00109270007.asp
already puts it on a uneven playing field compared to the U.S. and
Europe.
You can?t feed rich video and audio which is required for an enhanced
gaming experience effectively down a 56k line.
.
SLOW BROADBAND TAKEUP OUTSIDE KOREA
.
As an example, the U.K.?s broadband rollout has been been a slow and
painful one, hampered by cost, and poor marketing. British Telecom.net
slow to upgrade exchanges due to their claim of low demand (to the
bemusement of some who were crying out for broadband but couldn?t get
it), and couldn?t justify upgrading each exchange at