Cyworld
Posted by admin | Posted in cyworld, korea, social networking | Posted on 10-11-2009-05-2008
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Cyworld (Hangul: 싸이월드) is a social networking website launched on Sep 1, 1999. Cyworld is a South Korean web community site operated by SK Communications (Hangul: SK커뮤니케이션즈), a subsidiary of SK Telecom (Hangul: SK텔레콤). Literally translated, “Cy” could mean “cyber”, but is also a play on the Korean word for relationship (Hangul: 사이 ‘between’), so it could also mean “relationship.” Cyworld, much like a virtual space in the internet, which users can decorate their “home” and invite friends.
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Members cultivate on- and off-line relationships by forming Ilchon (Hangul: 일촌, Hanja: 一寸) buddy relationships with each other through a service called “minihompy” (mini-homepage), which encompasses a photo gallery, video, message board, guestbook, friend list, and personal bulletin board. A user can link his/her minihompy to another user’s minihompy to form a buddy relationship. It is similar to U.S. based Facebook and MySpace websites. Reports show that as much as 90 percent of South Koreans in their 20s [1] and 25 percent of the total population of South Korea are registered users of Cyworld [2] , and as of September 2005, monthly unique visitors are about 20 million [3].
Korean Celebrities are also known to have their own Cyworld.
Today, cyworld has extended its operation to the United States, China, Japan, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
In 2007 Cyworld launched an international social & photosharing youth community called thephotodiary –
The Swedish version of the site called bilddagboken.se has already gained nearly six million users.