Koreans Find Secret Cybersauce 

There's more to online social networks than matchmaking, and South Korea's Cyworld is showing the way.

The online service blends homepage building and social networking with a host of other online activities, including Sims-like role-playing.

Owned by South Korea's SK Communications, Cyworld is a cyberphenomenon. According to the service, Cyworld jumped from 10 million to 13 million users in 2004. A quarter of the country's 48.2 million people have signed up, including 90 percent of the 24- to 29-year-old age group, the company claims.

"I was very reluctant to use Cyworld at first, very against it," said user Charlie Shin. "I said it was just a Friendster copy. Now, if someone were to shut down my page tomorrow, I'd have to hunt them down."

Users get their own page, a virtual living room called a minihompy where they can create diaries, publish images, network, host legal background music and more.

Members personalize their minihompy with virtual objects they purchase from Cyworld, and enhance it with up to 10 tracks of background music they can buy and play for visitors. Universal Music International sells 100,000 tracks a day though Cyworld, according to Adam White, Universal's vice president of communications.

Basic services are free, but Cyworld's online stores accounted for 80 percent of Cyworld's $54 million revenue in 2004, selling such digital goods as virtual furniture, page backgrounds and avatars.

Like Friendster, Cyworld lets users create networks based on degrees of closeness. But Cyworld is Friendster-plus. As well as websites and blogs, Cyworld has its own version of the popular game The Sims. It also gives users unlimited image hosting, the ability to update pages by mobile phone and special-interest bulletin boards.

The service has its own currency called dotoris (acorns) and its own slang and social obligations.

It is highly addictive. Many users call themselves "Cyholics," spending hours every day in Cyworld -- enough user time to produce 3.8 billion page impressions a week.

"The word Cy in Korean means 'relationship,'" said Cyworld executive Rick Kim. "Cyworld, therefore, literally means 'relationship world.' It underscores our commitment to creating an environment where wholesome, friendly relationships are created and maintained."

Cyworld user Shin said Korean social customs contribute to Cyworld's success. "Everyone (who visits your page) starts leaving you messages," said Shin. "If you don't write back or leave a (guestbook) message on their site, they get upset."

In Korea, not responding in a timely fashion is seen as rude and upsetting. The end result is a "vicious and unending cycle of messages," Shin said. "You can literally spend all day on the site writing everyone a message."

Cyworld uses real names for users' pages, so if people meet at a party, it's increasingly likely they'll swap Cyworld addresses, not phone numbers.

"Instead of asking for a phone number or e-mail address, people ask, 'Do you Cy?'" said user Jennifer Park.

Australian artist Emil Goh said he is "totally in love" with Cyworld because of its sophistication.

"Its interface is a model of how other online services should operate," he said. "It's also a great way of learning about Korean life, as most things are photoblogged, right down to what people have for lunch."

Goh is working on a Cyworld-themed art project: photographing users' real rooms from the same angle as their minihompies, and presenting images of the real and virtual rooms side by side. Some of his images are currently on exhibit in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Goh and Shin both said Cyworld's networking and communication features, combined with the personal nature of the pages, make the service ideal for friendships and dating.

Cyworld "has brought the country closer together, (helping users find) old friends and (stay) close to the friends you've got," said Shin.

Cyworld is spreading across Asia this year. It launched in China in June 2005, hopes to reach Japan in October and has Hong Kong and Taiwan on its to-do list. Cyworld U.S. is slated to launch in early 2006, said Kim.

More stories written by Jonny Evans