South Korea Social MediaFast Facts

August 2012

Fast Facts1

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South Korea is one of the most connected nations in the world

with high broadband penetration rates and a tech savvy

population. She has the world’s fastest average Internet

connection speed at 2,202 Kbps. This is almost four times the

world's average and is faster than Great Britain, Turkey, Spain

and Australia combined! It is therefore not surprising that she

has approximately 39 million internet users and boasts one the

Asia’s highest internet penetration rates of 80.9%.

Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm#asia

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South Korea has a high world Internet penetration rate of

82.7% in 2011, The Internet has a higher status for many

Koreans than it does in the West.

Fast Facts[Source: www.internetworldstats.com/top25.htm

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Most internet users access the Internet at least once a day,

spending an average of 14.7 hours weekly with almost half of

this group (48.9%) spending more than 14 hours or more.

People mainly access the Internet from home, followed by at

work.

We also found that the Internet is mainly used for getting

information or data followed by engaging in leisure activities.

Fast Facts[Source: Korea Communications Commission and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA)

Fast Facts4

3G Fast Facts

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Gender ratios for internet usage in South Korea are relatively

even. Out of the total number of internet uses, men make up

57.7% and women make up 42.3%.

Source: www. eMarketer.com

Fast Facts5

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60% of internet users fall between 25 and 44 years of age.

Significantly, internet users aged between 55-64 make up only

4.6% of internet users.

Source: www. eMarketer.com

Fast Facts6

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79.5% of workers in Korea use the Internet and the occupations

are broken down into these as follows, professionals/managers,

office workers, service/sales, production workers, students and

housewives.

Source: www. eMarketer.com

Fast Facts7

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College graduates are the heaviest users of Internet followed by

high school graduates, middle school graduates and elementary

and below.

Source: www. eMarketer.com

3G Fast Facts

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Korea's high internet penetration rate can be attributed to the

government's strong infrastructural support. The rapid increase

of internet users over the past ten years is evidence for that.

The government is constantly looking to upgrade the wireless

network and have put plans in place to increase the speed of

internet connection of every household.

Source: isis.kisa.or.kr/eng/

Social Media and Search Facts

Social Media Facts9

Social Media Facts

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What is the Social Media landscape in South Korea

Social Media Facts

Social Media Facts

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The South Korean social media use a multitude and array of

digital tools and channels for their online activities. Notable

mentions in the activities shown below are the use of SNS and

online trade. Recent figures reveal that twitter users in Korea

have exceeded 3 million and 67% of Korean CEOs believe that

"SNS will change the way of communication", it is also the most

used channel to communicate with employees and customers

among Korean CEOs.

Source: www.asiadigitalmap.com/2011/03/korea-weekly-social-media-news-update-7/

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Blog Facts

Blog Facts

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Popular blog hosting sites include:1. Naver Blogs2. Daum blogs3. Egloos4. Blogin5. Tistory6. Textcube7. Yahoo!Korea blog

South Korea is home to one of the largest blogging communities

in the world, second only to China.

Source: globalwebindex.net/thinking/the-global-state-of-social-media-in-2011/

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Microblogging Facts

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Microblogging Facts

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Twitter has had a phenomenal impact in South Korea with users

having an active user rate two times higher than the world

average. As of January 19, 2011, Twitter has expanded to offer

a Korean language service, making Korean the seventh

language available for support on Twitter.

Source: www.asiadigitalmap.com

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Microblogging Facts

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Microblogging Facts

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me2DAY - Owned by Naver. Popularly dubbed as the “Twitter of

South Korea”, me2DAY is popular among South Korean

celebrities including G-Dragon from Big Bang and Sandara Park

from 2NE1.

As of September 25, 2011, the number of me2day users has

outstripped the number of domestic Facebook and Twitter users.

Source: koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2918885

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Facebook Facts

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Within South Korea, Facebook’s prominence lags behind

Cyworld with only slightly more than 4 million users. The

Facebook penetration of the South Korean online population lies

at 10.17%.

Recently in August 2011, Facebook in Korea experienced the

highest number of monthly visitors to the site and has beaten

Cyworld for the first time.

Facebook Facts[Source: The Korea Times, October 7, 2011

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Cyworld is South Korea's leading social networking community

with 25 million members since its inception in 1999. It functions

as a hybrid between a blog and a personal homepage, and the

subscribers’ personal home pages is referred to as ‘minihompy’.

Cyworld users are very diverse and range anywhere from

elementary students to middle-aged adults. However, recently,

some people are getting bored of Cyworld and do not bother

updating their sites. Some are making the switch to Facebook.

Facebook Facts[Source: The Korea Times, October 7, 2011

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BBS Facts

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Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) / Forums Facts

Daum Agora - A popular web portal in South Korea. Includes a

popular free web-based e-mail, messaging service, forums,

shopping and news. The popularity of Daum stems from the

range of services it offers, but also from the fact that it was

the first South Korean web portal of significant size.

DC Inside - DC Inside is frequently noted under the initiali, DC,

and it functions as an Internet forum. It has now met broad

notoriety in South Korea due to its unique nature.

Source: Wikipedia

Video Sharing Facts

Video Sharing Facts

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Youtube - The South Korean population uses mainly the

Youtube, a video-sharing website on which users can upload,

share, and view videos.

Naver Video- There are other alternative channels that South

Koreans use as well such as Naver video which belongs to

Naver.

Source: www.koreacrunch.com

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Instant Messenger Facts

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IM Facts[

South Koreans use an array of instant messaging tools such as

NateOn, KakaoTalk, Buddybuddy, Sayclub Tachy and MSN

Messenger. Outside of work, many teenagers prefer to use SMS

and instant messaging to communicate.

The two most used services are:• NateOn• Kakao Talk

Source: Email for the old, 5 October 2011

Search Engine Facts

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Search Engine Facts[

Popularly referred to as the “Google of Korea”, Naver is run by

NHNCorp in South Korea. Using Naver tends to give more

accurate Korean data and results found are more refined.

19Source: Wikipedia

The breakdown of the statistics as of September 2011 are:1. Naver - 63.5%2. Google - 29.67%3. Daum - 3.41%4. Yahoo!Korea - 2.52%5. Nate - 0.53%

E-commerce Facts

E-commerce Facts20

E-commerce Facts

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E-commerce is majorly popular in South Korea and according to a study of visitor traffic by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In terms of traffic volume, “comprehensive” online malls that sold a wide range of products such as GMarket and Auction and the online arms of brick-and-mortar retailers such as Lotte and Shinsegae Mall, were found to host the largest share with an average of 21.85 million visitors per month.

Source: koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2929296

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E-commerce Facts

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E-commerce Facts[

In the second quarter of 2011, “Credit Card” was the most used

payment option in B2C E-Commerce in South Korea, accounting

for more than 70% of market value.

Source: www.ystats.com/uploads/report_abstracts/882.pdf?PHPSESSID=d79f3c1d7b6c91060d3bd07c19d0b388

Mobile Facts

Mobile Facts22

Mobile Facts

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Asia-Pacific holds 56% of the worldwide mobile users globally.

The evolving nature of mobile phones and the high adoption

rate of mobile phone plans in Asia have made mobile devices

a key influence in molding the digital landscape.

South Korea is again at the forefront of this change.

Source: KISA

Mobile Facts23

Mobile Facts

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With a dense and world class infrastructure of wireless

networks, the country which global mobile phone

powerhouses such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics

and world most technologically savvy populations call home

has been at the forefront of such a shift. Figures show that

South Korea has the highest Mobile Phone Use Penetration in

Asia-Pacific

Source: Starcom MediaVest Group, July 2011

Mobile Facts24

Mobile Facts

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Mobile operators in South Korea have provided a wide variety of

services to users on the mobile Internet platform. Services that

allow mobile users to subscribe and customize services to their

liking and to access the Internet whenever they desire, have been

introduced. These services are not only accessible through mobile

terminals but also through other devices such as PDAs and PCs.

Source: Starcom MediaVest Group, July 2011

Mobile Facts25

Mobile Facts

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South Korea has also been a key driving force in the increase in

smart phone shipments to Asia. LG and Samsung have been

investing heavily in smartphones and increased efforts to market

their products within Korea.

Source: Korea Communications Commission as cited in press release, March 24, 2011.

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