South Korean Social Media Fast Facts

August 2012

Fast Facts 1

Fast Facts

[

[

[

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:  h*p://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm#asia  

2

Fast Facts

[

[

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  

3

Fast Facts

[

[

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  Communica=ons  Commission  and  the  Korea  Internet  &  Security  Agency  (KISA)  

Fast Facts 4

3G Fast Facts

[

[

[

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 Facts 5

3G Fast Facts

[

[

[

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 Facts 6

3G Fast Facts

[

[

[

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 Facts 7

3G Fast Facts

[

[

[

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 8

3G Fast Facts

[

[

[

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 Facts 9

Social Media Facts

[

[

[

What is the Social Media landscape in South Korea

Social Media Facts

Social Media Facts

[

[

[

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/  

10

Blog Facts

Blog Facts

[

[

[

Popular blog hosting sites include: 1. Naver Blogs 2. Daum blogs 3. Egloos 4. Blogin 5. Tistory 6. Textcube 7. 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/  

11

Microblogging Facts

[

[

Microblogging Facts [

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  

12

Microblogging Facts

[

[

Microblogging Facts [

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/ar=cle/ar=cle.aspx?aid=2918885  

13

Facebook Facts

[

[

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    

14

Facebook Facts

[

[

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    

15

16

[

[

BBS Facts [

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

[

[

[

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  

17

18

Instant Messenger Facts

[

[

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

[

[

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.

19 Source:    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 Facts 20

E-commerce Facts

[

[

[

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/ar=cle/ar=cle.aspx?aid=2929296  

21

E-commerce Facts

[

[

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 Facts 22

Mobile Facts

[

[

[

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 Facts 23

Mobile Facts

[

[

[

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 Facts 24

Mobile Facts

[

[

[

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 Facts 25

Mobile Facts

[

[

[

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  Communica=ons  Commission  as  cited  in  press  release,  March  24,  2011.  

Contact Us [

Follow on Twitter @digitaljunglecn info@digitaljungle.com.cn

Connect on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/digital-jungle

Presentations on SlideShare www.slideshare.net/digitaljungle

www.digitaljungle.com.cn Follow on Weibo: www.weibo.com/digitaljungle

Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/digitaljungle