South Korea - Google's piece of cake

Google has squeezed into almost every corner of the world, but has failed bitterly in trying to invade Korea, one of the world's number one countries. Why so?

South Korean users are among the most technologically and proficient Internet users in the world, with millions of people having their own blogs and broadband connection rates and the densest Wi-Fi hotspots. It seems that Koreans will automatically and naturally become loyal customers of Google, but no.

According to WebSideStory data, the search giant accounted for only 17% of the total number of customers searching in March and was completely shadowed by the local website Naver of NHN Corp.

This website accounts for nearly 58.4% of the total current search queries in Korea. Second place is Daum Communications, which is also a domestic search engine with more than 48%. Yahoo's Korean page ranked third.

I can't help but wonder, why did Google - the company that just last week shocked all investors with a profit increase of 60% in the first quarter, failed to succeed in Kimchi?

Search for a "humanized" way

Analysts believe that the reason Google failed is because of many unique and unique factors of the Korean market, and that Google's search results are too reliant on software, rather than on your professional knowledge. people.

Of course, Korean pie is relatively small compared to the English speaking community on cyberspace. In the past, Koreans often found it difficult to find information in their native language.

To "revive the situation", Naver, a site like Yahoo-style web portal rather than a simple search engine, launched what it called Knowledge iN, where users can post questions and people. Other users will respond, if known.

Now Knowledge iN owns a database of more than 41.1 million entries. For each search request, you'll get answers from other people, related news and blog sites, along with some links that contain other search keywords.

" Naver's service is clearly well suited to Korean culture ," said analyst Wayne Lee of Woori Securities. "People in this country love to interact with others, like to ask and like to receive feedback."

The most popular questions on Naver focus on love, dieting or killing computer viruses. However, you can also find all the answers in the sky below, from the name of the dinosaurs to how to get rid of acne .

In other words, " Korea is a place where people and search can coexist and thrive, " Lee said.

Rare marketing effort

Yim Kwang-soon, a 25-year-old student who uses the Internet for an average of 5 hours a day, says he always uses Naver when searching. " As long as Naver's service makes people happy and satisfied, they won't switch to another site, unless they offer a unique service ."

Google started creating a Korean site in 2000 and has since introduced Desktop Search to Gmail. Last June, the company also set up an office in Seoul and is planning to increase the number of employees there.

Last year, Google hired a double-decker bus to run to universities and shopping centers across Korea with the task of promoting "Google Experience", providing firm information and free Internet access. . This is a rare marketing effort from Google, a company that never cared about advertising in the US because it was so popular.

Thien Y