Exposed

'My life is not your porn'. You've seen these posters on the streets, when thousands of victims and outraged citizens protested against Korea's pervasive digital sex crimes.

That's also the title of Heather Barr's report for Human Rights Watch*, which confirms Korea's appalling softness when it comes to fighting online sex crime (let alone sex crime in general), an inaction that encouraged a phenomenon now pervasive to the point this high tech nation is plagued with a 'molka' pandemic (perverts hiding mini cameras in public restrooms).

Obviously, so far, protecting the victims or even recognizing their trauma has never been a priority for Korean governments. But now that they've been themselves exposed internationally, let's hope that it will force them to, at long last, act and fight seriously for the victims and against perpetrators.

And again, it's not just digital sex crimes. Korea can't wait any longer to have zero tolerance for sex crimes in general. And to fight against gender discrimination, a cultural enabler to all abuses. 

 

Also. Please, the time has come to put an end to the artificial gender war that's been destroying Korea's youth over the past few years. Make no mistake, we're talking about the present and the future of a nation with social, economic, and political impacts. Such fallacies can be as toxic and dangerous for democracy as the 'clash of civilizations' a few years ago or conspiracy theories nowadays. Demanding justice for victims and against criminals has nothing to do with being male or female, and Korea has never been stronger than all citizens unite around actual justice.

In this context, the PPP's new leader, LEE Jun-seok, cannot embody the future of Korea as long as he embodies the fight against gender equality. If this ambitious young politician wants to pass for a modern reformer, he has to prove it, and to convince young Korean males to reject anti-feminism. I doubt that's on top of his agenda, but it will be once Korea decides to become a cultural leader in this field as well.

Meanwhile, kudos to Heather, and to all the victims who overcame their traumas and broke their silence to testify for her report.

 
Seoul Village 2021
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter, follow me on Instagram.
Download my 'Seoul VillageS' (fictions, free ebook).

* available on HRW's website: "My life is not your porn - Digital sex crimes in Korea".

Korea revives the project of a fourth mobile license

According to The Korea Herald (May 29), the Korean government is considering reviving the project of a fourth Mobile Network Operator license as part of a plan to stimulate the market.

Is there a need for another 4G network? Korea is well covered with LTE to LTE-A, beefed-up locally through pervasive femtocells and WiFi. And the three incumbents don't want to sit on their laurels: Korea Telecom promised 5G trials for the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, and SK Telecom announced a partnership with Google on augmented reality ("T-AR for Project Tango").

Is there a need for more competition? It depends on the profile of the new player, and the impacts on a M-VNO ecosystem that, at long last, is biting into a pie still dominated by SK Telecom, Korea Telecom, and LG U+.

According to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP), Mobile Virtual Network Operators were claiming a 8.8% market share as of April 21 (up from 2.9% in June 2012), thanks to prices on average 57% cheaper than the MNOs.

But it's not as if you had one fourth player with a 8.8% market share, big enough to contest the leaders on more profitable segments. Today, Korea has 27 M-VNOs, most struggling to make their first profit, and likely to never see it. Significantly, their number of subscribers started to explode when they targeted more discount-seeking audiences (the youth, Chinese migrant workers...).

A perennial candidate for the 4th spot is actually a consortium of M-VNOs: KMI (Korea Mobile Internet) revived their candidacy in October 2013, and defending the existing M-VNO ecosystem could be a stronger argument today. In December 2011, the Korea Communications Commission not only rejected KMI's bid, but also that of IST (Internet Space Time lost the backing of Hyundai Group at a critical moment). Note that the KCC also canceled the auction for the WiBro spectrum. I explained a few months earlier ("A Kbiz MNO ? SMEs vs Korea Inc") how the attempt by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Businesses (Kbiz) to enter the market looked more like a lobbying stunt to push WiBro.

A much bigger fish could also seek the fourth license, with more brand power. Typically, CJ Group is already a major player in telecom, IPTV, or multimedia contents. It has the money to invest on new networks (Daum Kakao or Naver would need serious backing), the customer bases to leverage, and the contents to fill the pipes..., but don't bet on price wars with fellow chaebol on the juiciest segments. 
 
A true new entrant from overseas? Global MNOs know how difficult it would be in a country where foreign majors are seldom allowed to take or maintain leading positions (see retail for example: Carrefour and Wal-Mart already gone, Tesco on the back seat). But joining a consortium, or creating one remains a rare opportunity for international platforms to push their solutions in an otherwise locked Korean market. And nowadays, the dominant platforms do not necessarily belong to telecom operators...

Anyway, expect more lobbying ahead of the government's guidelines, expected by the end of June.

• Initially published on mot-bile ("Korea's fourth license reload"). 
• See also "Daum Kakao, Google Campus... Korean platforms on steroids", other posts related to innovation in Korea.

Seoul Village 2015
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter

Add this page to your favorites


* "Consortium to bid for 4th mobile carrier in S. Korea" (Yonhap News - 2013/10/08)

The Bigger, The Bitter

Yesterday, Daum and Kakao Corp announced that they would merge on October 1st, and Google that its first Google Campus in Asia would be located in Seoul.

The Daum Kakao merger looks rather defensive: before everything, it creates a stronger competitor to NHN, the leader operating among others the main rivals to Daum and Kakao Talk: Naver and LINE.

NHN and Daum are rare exceptions as successful newcomers in a country where start-ups struggle to survive in an ecosystem dominated by chaebols: as soon as a new gem shows some potential, the big fishes try to eat it, or to destroy it with me-toos leveraging on in-house countless entry points, or to control it by becoming its sole 'partner'. 

NHN and Daum could storm the web at the turn of the millennium, when mobile operators where busy building proprietary environments, and other chaebol focusing as usual on hardware. They built competitive platforms that even resisted Google, who only managed to gain strongholds in Korea thanks to Android. Typically, even if Naver maintains its leadership in web searches, Google could 'crowd-boost' Google Maps or Google Translate, with the help of smartphone manufacturers who were too happy to have a platform rivaling Apple to care about the hidden costs.

As we've said before, Samsung and LG helped Google BtoB (OEM) succeed where Google BtoC (portal) failed, and all they can do now is send a Tizen to nibble at the heavyweight champion's ears. 

There's a finite space for major value aggregators in Korea, and as Samsung's latest attempt to build a sustainable platform beyond hardware, Tizen probably accelerated the need for rivals to stretch their reach.

Big G needed to beef up its Asian ecosystem and Korea seems the perfect choice: Android rules, start-ups need competitive platforms to survive chaebol bullies, and Mountain View has the opportunity to weaken some of its most serious competitors on their own turf. Bonus: by supporting Korea's SME and creative ecosystem, you gain the favors of local authorities and regulators.

Anyway, good news for Korea's attractiveness... but yet higher entry barriers for potential major newcomers.


(initially published on my innovation blog as "Daum Kakao, Google Campus... Korean platforms on steroids" - see all posts related to Korea)




ADDENDUM 20140828: let's guess which 'independent' whistleblower suggested Korean watchdog to investigate Kakao Corp in the wake of the merger ("Kakao under probe for allegedly abusing market power: sources")


Seoul Village 2014
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter

Add this page to your favorites

GSM

Seoul Metropolitan Government launched the new version of its English website:

 english.seoul.go.kr homepage (20140301)
ADDENDUM - WARNING: to new users willing to enjoy the most interactive/participative functions, there seems to be temporarily glitches on the registration page

As you can see, and following current web trends (particularly with websites running on the popular WordPress platform), image rules over text. A very smart and user-friendly choice... which I'm not likely to make anytime soon: if this excuse for a blog is ill-written, it's even more ill-illustrated (now typically, that was ill-written).

Speaking of illustrations: my mugshot appears on Seoul's frontpage. I happen to be a member of the Global Seoul Mate program, like Mimsie Ladner, Hassan Abid, Lua Tsunliong, Kerliza Foon, or Alex Paik... and at least a hundred more not pictured here, but all over the web (e.g. fellow urbanist Nikola "Kojects" Medimorec, or fellow Seoul subway rider Michael "마익흘" Aronson). 

We write about Seoul in English, Chinese, or Japanese, we come from all over the world and all walks of life, and each one of us has their preferred angles (e.g. Seoul neighborhoods, photography, cultural events, Korean food, Korean oral traditions, K-Pop...), but we all have at least two things in common:

• be it as residents or just as distant admirers, we're all Seoulites
• we tend to be heavy SNS users, and some clearly in the hyperactive-pathological range. Which may explain why I'm among the oldest patients in the nuthouse... but hey, I used to develop online services before some of these kids were even born (thinking of it, back in 1993, we had a code name for our statistical category of heaviest users that pretty much sums us up now: "Stakhano-Repetitus").

A bit like in "Bitter, Sweet Seoul", you don't need to see Seoul and its Mayor through rose colored glasses. And if you've seen me palling around with PARK Won-soon*, you also know that, when needed, I can be as critical as I was with his predecessor.

So as the GSM program starts its 3rd year, I renew my initial pledge to You, Dear Reader*: "Seoul Village will remain totally independent, nonsensical, and poorly written".


Seoul Village 2014
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter

Add this page to your favorites

* see "Joint wishes from Seoul City Mayor and Seoul Village Minor"
** see "Seoul Friendship Fair 2012, Global Seoul Mates"

Parking Chance, The App

This is not about PARKing CHANce, the Park brothers venture (by the way, "Bitter, Sweet Seoul" passed the 10,000 views mark only yesterday - what have you guys been doing instead of watching it?), but about actual parking spots across Seoul.

From today on, Seoul Metropolitan Government is offering for free its parking app: 주차정보안내서비스 (서울주차정보 for short on Google Play) delivers key data sets for over 2,000 parking lots: location, contact, capacity, rates, and sometimes even photos. Don't expect real time info about availabilities at this stage, but that's a start.

Download the app (e.g. for Android, here) and check available spots

The web version: parking.seoul.go.kr  (on your mobile: parking.seoul.go.kr/mobile/Resource/ParkingMap.aspx)

The service is also available on major navigation systems, and who knows, non-Korean third parties such as Parkopedia.com could be interested.

Of course, Seoul's future belongs to even smarter solutions: eco-friendly public / shared transit...

Seoul Village 2014
Welcome to our Korean Errlines! Follow Seoul Village on Facebook and Twitter

Add this page to your favorites

Online sales become the first distribution channel in Korea - or is door-to-door back ?

When I first came to Korea 20 years ago, Department Stores were becoming the main distribution channel for many consumer goods, taking over traditional door-to-door sales.

Convenience stores (FamilyMart, LG25 - now GS25 -, BuyTheWay, 7Eleven...) were also gaining ground. Then came the hypermarkets (eMart, Carrefour at one moment, Samsung / Tesco HomePlus, Lotte Mart...), and the SSMs / SuperSuperMarkets (Lotte mySuper, HomePlus Express, eMart Everyday...).

One by one, small groceries / mom & pop stores closed, and traditional markets plummeted, killed by discount shopping (or supposedly "discount" shopping : a recent survey pointed out that for many food items, traditional markets are actually cheaper). Survivors could count on a system that protected both food majors and small distributors : product packaging including the price tag regardless of the sales channel guaranteed the same price for such basic items as instant noodles or ice creams. But this system is about to be abandoned and anyway, it didn't mean much anymore : big discounters sell their own brands of instant noodles, and my local SSM offers a year-round 50% discount on all ice creams.

Even as competition raged between discount shops, many opening 24/7/365, Department Stores (Lotte DS, Shinsegae DS, Hyundai DS, Galleria DS...), sometimes growing into ambitious complexes (ie Shinsegae Centum City in Busan) remained ahead for many consumer goods and fashion.

Until now : online sales have just become Korea's first distribution channel.

This doesn't come as a surprise for anyone living in "ubiquitous" Korea : beyond pure players (ie Auction), even brick and mortar leaders are pushing ecommerce very hard, prefering cannibalization to the loss of a customer.

Somehow, we're back to square one and door-to-door sales. The first door is your mobile, PC or TV screen, but everything is done to deliver it wherever you live (home deliveries keep booming), wherever you work (Seoul would collapse without cheap express deliveries), and even wherever you go (ie location based services and mobile couponing).

Like for ADSL or FTTH, Korea's economy of access is unbeatable. Because of urban density, because major players are ready to offer what comes as a premium anywhere else, and furthermore because in many cases for smaller fish, the last mile is provided by people working under the legal hourly wage, ready to make a buck even if it doesn't make any sense if you simply take into account transportation costs. When you see a truck carrying about five hundred eggs on a highway, you know something is wrong. And when you order a book online, the delivery person is rarely twice the same plain-clothes individual.

I guess that's one of the reasons why Amazon is not in Korea. The retailer tried to do some business via Samsung / SIMS more than ten years ago but failed. So Amazon ships from other countries to international customers while Kim & Chang law firm securely protects Amazon.co.kr URL.

Of course, Amazon would face pure players in cultural goods, such as Aladdin (now Aladin.co.kr), or Kyobo Book Center (very ambitious in the ebook ecosystem), but I don't think it's about competition : players differenciating themselves on logistic platforms tend to struggle here. Carrefour left the country in spite of commercial success for regulatory reasons : it couldn't operate with its usual purchasing power model. I think the logistics equation could be very tricky for Amazon.

eBay is faring much better in Korea (as Auction.co.kr) - it even wolfed down G-market, snatching it away from Inter Park... but eBay is more into auctions and C2C than into retailing and B2C. And when it advertised massively on internet shopping, big retailers pushed the pedal to the metal.

But the biggest revolution for e-commerce in Korea this year is the end of Microsoft Explorer's de facto monopoly since July 1st : since 1999, all online shopping and banking services had to use ActiveX systems, but the Financial Services Commission put an end to it following the recent boom in smartphones.


Seoul Village 2010