Already being called a Myspace killer the very successful Korean website ( http://cyworld.nate.com/main2/index.htm) is launching a US version at http://us.cyworld.com/. Some interesting facts about Cyworld: 1. 18 Million Members 2. Users create virtual rooms instead of profiles. They can buy furniture and other items to decorate their place with. 3. Accounts are linked by cell phone during signup to keep a lid on anonymous account. Not sure if this will be part of the US site however, Korea is very “cell phone savvy” where the US is not. Should be interesting to see what the US site includes. Just a heads up! -- Sean Percival Social Shield Webmaster http://www.socialshield.com
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Anne
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507
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(5 of 5)
Re: Cyworld is Coming to US
Jul 26, 2006 8:12 AM
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As far as any non-Korean speaker can tell so far (the South Korea-based Cyworld is all in Korean, of course), Cyworld is very much like other highly customizable social networks - only more customizable, and taking in revenue from selling virtual objects (as in online multiplayer games) for people to "decorate" their virtual spaces. "Everybody" is welcome, which means that young users need to be alert and think critically about who they "talk" with, and parents needs to be engaged. You can get a lot more detail from that thorough Business Week piece I mentioned earlier.
Anne
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Guest
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Re: Cyworld is Coming to US
Jul 26, 2006 12:11 AM
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But will it be safe?
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Anne
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507
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Re: Cyworld is Coming to US
Jul 25, 2006 10:44 AM
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Cyworld is quite the phenomenon - kind of a cross between Habbohotel.com and MySpace, and a Business Week article last March reported that 90% of Korean teens and 20-somethings are on it (about the % of that demographic LunarStorm claimed in Sweden, when it moved to open a UK version). For a few more details and a link to the Business week piece, see this item in NetFamilyNews.
Social networking is very much an international phenomenon - most of the users at Google's Orkut.com are in Brazil, and more than half of San Francisco-based Hi5.com's users are overseas, mostly in India. It does raise questions about how this "industry" could be regulated, which some US policymakers want to do. Any experts here who could speak to that?
Anne
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Larry
Posts:
136
From:
Silicon Valley, California
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6/19/06
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Re: Cyworld is Coming to US
Jul 25, 2006 8:58 AM
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Thanks Sean,
Cyworld is a very interesting site. Wonder if it will take a bite out of MySpace.
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Larry
Co-director
BlogSafety.com
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socialshield
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7/24/06
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Jul 25, 2006 1:35 AM
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Already being called a Myspace killer the very successful Korean website ( http://cyworld.nate.com/main2/index.htm) is launching a US version at http://us.cyworld.com/. Some interesting facts about Cyworld: 1. 18 Million Members 2. Users create virtual rooms instead of profiles. They can buy furniture and other items to decorate their place with. 3. Accounts are linked by cell phone during signup to keep a lid on anonymous account. Not sure if this will be part of the US site however, Korea is very “cell phone savvy” where the US is not. Should be interesting to see what the US site includes. Just a heads up! -- Sean Percival Social Shield Webmaster http://www.socialshield.com |
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