Tag Archives: korea

Milestone in NHN-Twitter rivalry – I welcome the competition. Let’s see what they can do.

Milestone in NHN-Twitter rivalry
Korean microblog sees 1 million users
March 04, 2010

“Social media is the new inbox,” Erik Qualman, the author of “Socialnomics,” was once quoted as saying.

Some time has passed since microblogs like Twitter emerged as the darlings of the world of social networking.

While endorsements from numerous high-profile figures in politics and entertainment have certainly played a role in the increasing popularity of Twitter and other microblogging sites, their role in breaking the news of the Hudson River plane crash in New York last year also provided a major boost.

Now, the top Korean portal operator NHN has announced that me2DAY, a Korean microblogging service, has registered its millionth user, and the company has vowed to enhance the site so it can catch up with Twitter, which has entered the international lexicon like Google before it.

The San Francisco-based Twitter does not release official figures on the number of users it has, but some industry sources here estimate that some 100,000 Koreans use the service to “tweet” their thoughts.

“It’s difficult to say whether we are a market leader in local SNS at the moment,” said Kim Sang-hun, NHN’s CEO. “Yet I believe that the key words that will change the paradigm of Internet business today are ‘mobile,’ ‘relations’ and ‘real-time.’ In that sense, I believe NHN’s me2DAY is in tune with this trend.”

NHN kicked off its me2DAY service, using the slogan, “What are you thinking now?” in January 2009. At the start, there were just 26,000 users.

Me2Day is a lot like Twitter in terms of functionality, except perhaps the U.S. site’s added compatibility with smartphones.

NHN is in the process of remedying that problem. Last year, it introduced me2DAY apps for the iPhone as well as for smartphones with Windows Mobile platforms.

“In the coming months, we plan to add a photo attachment service and enhance the search capabilities of our me2Day service, among other things,” said Park Su-man, head of the company’s microblog task force.

NHN officials also predict that many politicians will use the service ahead of the June 2 local elections, and the Blue House said last week that it will also use me2DAY to connect with the general public.

via joongangdaily.joins.com

I’m not sure that I believe Me2Day can catch up, but I’d like to see them try. I think competition in this area will benefit both services.

I also don’t believe that there are more Me2Day users in Korean than Twitter users. In a small, informal survey (ok, just 2 of my classes), no student knew what Me2Day was and about half knew Twitter. Out of those, only a few were actually using Twitter (we will be using it in those classes this semester).

My Ustream Moment

Ustream.tv has interested me for quite a while. However, I’ve never been at the right place at the right time to really appreciate it. Today I caught a Tweet that Obama was speaking live in Virginia on Ustream. It was great.

I’m not committed to a candidate yet (in any party), yet there was certainly something special about hearing him speak live and in the moment. This just doesn’t seem to come through as well for me in a recorded version. This is entirely mental on my side, but it just seemed to make a difference. I can now better understand the buzz about him.

This is really where video blogging will take off. I don’t want you to polish it. Just send it to me in real-time with an option to go back and watch pre-recorded stuff. With the ability to stream from phones and cameras coming built-in to many new laptops, this will be a great movement. It will take citizen journalism to new heights. No longer are we only competing with print publications, but we are competing with broadcast news.

After watching Obama, I flipped around a little bit then decided to stream something of my own. Streaming Daehakro (University Street) in Seoul from the 2nd floor window of a Starbucks.

Not too exciting, but it does what I want it to do. It shows that a scene like this in Korea isn’t too much different from scenes in other major cities. Too often we exoticize (is that a word?) other cultures. We focus on differences and exotic elements in other cultures that have very little to do with the day to day lives of people in those cultures. Korea is often portrayed with Hanbok (traditional dress for men and women) and kimchi, even by Koreans in America (or other country). Showing similarities doesn’t cut it on international day at school 🙂

There is a lot to be said for the mundane. Show videos of street scenes like this. Show videos of subway riders. Show videos while walking through the Seoul downtown. Korea has come a long way from villagers in huts as portrayed by M.A.S.H., yet many people don’t have a sense of this. Though they might have daily interactions with Koreans, they often think that they escaped in impoverished existence by immigrating to [country name here] to start a new life. For anyone who lives here, that is silly, but it is a common belief that I have heard many times before.

Cheers to Ustream.tv and other services that allow us to broadcast the mundane.

Dan

Can’t Learn English Without Native Speakers? : Korea Beat

Can’t Learn English Without Native Speakers? : Korea Beat

Ooohhhh, the times they are a changin’

The winds of change are beginning to blow in Korea. Education officials are beginning to understand that there are alternatives to importing tens of thousands of English “teachers” (is teacher a title or qualification?) into the country. Finally, someone has woken up and realized that Korea’s huge Internet pipes and national broadband (even in rural areas) can be used for innovative approaches to educating their children.

When it comes to English education in Korea there are many problems batted about by politicians, educators, and researchers. It’s tough to come to conclusions with so many different opinions out there. However, I think that most agree on at least 2 serious issues: (1) Qualifications of English Teachers and (2) the Number of English Teachers.

I think that looking to the Internet is a good start for dealing with both of these issues. There is no reason to cite a lack of qualified English teachers when considering the global pool of teachers. There are plenty of Teachers who are qualified either with general teaching credentials or specifically with TESOL certifications or ESL licenses. All that is needed to get them into Korean classrooms is teacher training, a curriculum, and access to technology developed specifically for this type of distance instruction.

I don’t want to make it sound like this is THE answer to all of the issues with English education in Korea. Not only does this not solve them all, but it creates some training and infrastructure issues as well. However, as this article states, it is a great option for regions that cannot get highly qualified English teachers (Korea or other) as well as for other schools that want that extra interaction with native speakers of the language.

Dan

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