Google, Second Life.. These are the companies that had a huge success on the global market. But, this might not be the case in Korea. These companies are failing, while local companies are having their good time.
<Portals are failing>
According to the Industry, Google Korea’s market dominance fell to 1% from 2% after the launch of Universal Search, a search type designed for Korea users. Before, they had confidence that the Universal Search will succeed. However, they didn’t- It made the situation even worse. Naver, the local portal site, has the market dominance of 79.54% in Korea. Main reason why Korean people do not use Google is because of its simple, 2-D interface, and lack of coloring.
<Second Life is Failing>
Second life was recently launched in Korea. However, they are also failing. The response of Korean Netizens are literally ‘quiet’. Why? Korean gamers are familiar with MMORPG games, with quests. However, Second Life doesn’t have a concept of quest. Why? Living a life doesn’t necessarily neeed a quest. Consequently, korean gamers started to think that it is boring. Another reason why Second Life has failed is because its complex member-enrollment system. People want things to be simple, not complicated. Also, the description about how to play the game lacks many informations, which makes it even more complicated. Furthermore, there have been countless Server Failure, which resulted in loss of credit of second life.
An official at the industry said “Even though they succeeded in the global market doesn’t mean that they will also succeed in Korea. In order to succeed in Korea, they should analyze the user’s preferences carefully, and design the whole system to match the demand’.
AAW NEWS, Simon Yu (scientistsimon@hotmail.com)
