South Korean technology culture

South Korean corporations Samsung and LG were ranked second and third largest mobile phone companies in the world in the first quarter of 2010, respectively. An estimated 90% of South Koreans own a mobile phone. Aside from placing/receiving calls and text messaging, mobile phones in the country are widely used for watching Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) or viewing websites.Over one million DMB phones have been sold and the three major wireless communications providers SK Telecom, KT, and LG Telecom provide coverage in all major cities and other areas.
Wide access to broadband has let online games become a significant part of Korean culture in recent years. StarCraft, a real-time strategy game, is by far the most popular televised computer game in South Korea. Game tournaments, recorded in places like the COEX Mall are often broadcast live on TV stations such as MBCGame and Ongamenet. Professional StarCraft players can command considerable salaries in South Korea as members of pro-gaming teams that are sponsored primarily by cell phone providers. PC games are usually played in PC bangs which are basically internet cafes dedicated to online games such as Aion, Lineage II, Sudden Attack, Kart Rider, Maple Story, Mabinogi, World of WarCraft, and StarCraft 2 (the long awaited sequel to the original starcraft which sold over 4.5 million copies in South Korea). Based on Pando networks content delivery service released on September 2011, South Korea has the first fastest Internet speeds on the world at 17.62 Mbps and Seocho city has the fastest Internet on earth at 33.5 Mbps.

Cell phones in South Korea is a large industry. Almost 90% of all the South Koreans use their cell phones not only for calling but also for texting, mobile Internet use and many other uses. Although many of the Koreans cant afford to some of the new technology phones out, it is said that the average Korean buys or upgrades their phone every 11 months to keep up with the technology. Many of the Koreans use their phones as a mobile TV device; they are the most wired country on the planet. Many of the South Koreans get up to 20 megabits of data per second, as apposed to Americans who are lucky if they get even 4 Mbps. Broadband in over in South Korea is amazing, about 76 percent of households have broadband. The figure in America is 30 percent just to put it in perspective as to what it looks like. Compared to South Korea and many other European countries, we as Americans are a third world country, they have 75 percent of their people with cell phones and they receive signal almost everywhere they go, as apposed to America where we are in the ‘can you here me now’ stage. South Korea is considered the world’s high tech capital. South Korea has a culture where they go wild for playing online games and instead of going home after work they tend to go out to a bar or restaurant all while they are on their phones. Samsung, a massive company in South Korea test its products there for six to eight months before it sends its products out elsewhere, thus letting the Koreans have better technology earlier than anyone else in the world. During the period of 1997 and 1998 South Korea was hit with a financial crisis which aloud them to intervene more into the technology age and invest Billions in the technology of modems, routers, new computers and newer infrastructures. This which caused widespread activity and created a much more prosperous job field for which they could support themselves as well as their government. The Korean cell phone market and technology has made it so convenient for them to do so many different things all at once, they cant use their phone while driving to surf the internet all while using Yahoo maps as a guide throughout the city. Korea having reached the technology this far is having problems with their teenager groups, this being a new culture is having them addicted to the use of cell phones, the average Korean school student between the age of nine and nineteen sends more then a 100 SMS text messages a day, this causes them to loose concentration in class and do poorly, the wide use of cell phones in this country is causing a massive strain on the historic culture of South Koreans, instead of having visual conversations with people around them, they tend to be sucked up in the world of their cell phones. Many of the parents of these children most likely cant afford the bill each month for when the children have overage charges for the extensive use of the phone along with its internet capability and text. Companies’ advice teenagers and their parents to sign up an existing bill which is equivalent of $40 a month. In doing this it helps regulate the use somewhat as well as saves some money for the parents.

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