Digital Korea: Convergence of Broadband Internet, 3G Cell Phones, Multiplayer Gaming, Digital TV, Virtual Reality, Electronic Cash, Telematics, Robotics, E-Government and the Intelligent Home

摘要

If you ever wonder why, as a technical communicator in North America, you need to learn about digital technologies in a Far Eastern country, please look at these sets of data, which are as current as 2006: South Korea had the highest broadband penetration rate per capita in the world (51 %), and 90% of household Internet access was broadband; 43% of South Koreans used mobile Internet (via cell phones) in 2005 whereas only 19% of Americans did 1 year later; 43% of South Koreans maintained personal profiles in Cyworld, a social networking Web site whereas 21% of American users had a personal profile in MySpace; the South Korean multiplayer game Lineage enjoyed 14 million subscribers worldwide whereas its western counterpart World of Warcraft had 8 million subscribers; 57% of music sales in South Korea were digital whereas only 10% of music sales in the United States were digital; 21% of South Koreans checked e-mails on cell phones in 2005 whereas 11% of Americans did so by March 2006; 63% of South Korean cell phone owners used mobile payment, and 25% of all Visa card transactions in South Korea occurred via cell phones; 42% of South Korean cell phone owners sent picture messages whereas 19% of German users did; and, finally, the online daily newspaper OhmyNews, a pioneer of citizen journalism that was founded in 2000, had 50,000 citizen contributors and 1.2 million daily readers by 2006, and after Roh Moo-Hyun took the South Korean presidential seat, he had his first press interview with OhmyNews.