Google’s YouTube (youtube.com), the world’s largest video site, has become subject to the real name system, which obliges Internet users to use their real names when posting information to Web sites. YouTube now stands at a crossroads and must decide whether to adopt the real name system or alter or drop its service in Korea.
The government announced on July 22 comprehensive measures to protect online information, expanding the number of sites subject to the real name system from media outlets, portals and UCC sites getting up to 300,000 visitors a day to those getting just 100,000 a day. YouTube, which was getting 800,000 visitors weekly as of the second week of August, will from next year be subject to the real name system. An official with the Korea Communications Commission said that YouTube, even though it is an overseas site, will not be exempt from the system, and that Google has, in the past, accepted Korean regulations, such as those regarding underage protections.
The article continues to tell of YouTube Korea's increased traffic over the course of 2008, even though it was lampooned early on as being a failure. I'm curious, though, besides being written in Korean, does YouTube Korea differ from any of the other YouTubes? Is there anything beyond the language barrier preventing people from contributing should the site go down?
Google, which owns YouTube, hasn't been very successful in Korea. That January KT article I just sited said Google and Yahoo each have less than 5% of the market-share of internet searches. A lengthy Associated Press piece from 2006 goes into why Google may be struggling. An excerpt:
Still, Google faces an uphill battle, simply because it can be tough to change Internet users' habits.
Many Korean Internet users start their Web browsers with portal sites such as Naver that offer detailed category listings, online shopping and news headlines. Koreans embrace the visually rich websites because they also benefit from being a world leader in per-capita broadband connections — meaning fancy graphics and animation flow quickly onto their screens.
That's a marked contrast to Google's celebrated bare-bones approach, with sparse graphics and a single search box. The company has only recently sought to change its approach and become a place on the Web for people to hang around and not just jump to other links.
Lee Jae-suk, a 24-year-old university student in Seoul, said he prefers Naver for searches because of the wealth of its results that skim websites, blogs, news and video and organize them by category.
"Google's site is just not enough for everything. Their search results especially are too limited," said Lee. "I think Google is paying less attention to Korean Internet users' demands."
A Business Week article from January, 2006 said basically the same thing:
Why is Naver so popular? One reason is that Naver can deliver more relevant search results than Google can, at least on its home turf. A simple Google search will return only certain kinds of Web pages, and a user needs to click another link to find, say, related images or news stories. NHN offers a mix of categories including blogs and community sites unless the user specifies a particular kind of document. A Naver search for a subway station, for instance, will return a map, information on the subway line serving the station, connecting bus lines, restaurants and shops near the station, blog entries mentioning it, and more. "Google has a superb search engine," says Choi Jae Hyeon, NHN's search chief. "We have, however, built up knowhow and a database by extracting knowledge from users' brains."
Blogger The Daily Kimchi offered his take in 2007:
Although I am a big fan of Google's products and services (Gmail rocks my socks), I believe Google will fail to dominate the South Korean online search market. Why you ask? Things work differently here, as Koreans have an immense amount of pride towards their homegrown products and services, as opposed to foreign companies. Prime examples of these failures? Think Walmart (now E-Mart), French retail giant Carrefour (now owned by E.Land Corp), and recent B&Q's failure to penetrate the Korean retail markets. These large multinationals have suffered greatly and have been forced to sell off their remaining stores in the country to local Korean companies (B&Q is still up in the air). Even automobile manufactures have a tough time in the Korean market. The majority of the cars you see here are either badged Hyundai, Kia, or Samsung.
Considering that South Korea is one of the most wired countries in the world, the people here definitely are web-saavy. If their preference of internet portals is along the lines of their retail choices, then Google might have a higher mountain to climb than expected. Google Korea might take a large number of users away from Naver and Daum (although Google is now working with Daum), but it will never be viewed as the number one search engine in Korea--the people here won't let it happen.
TDK goes on to compare the simple look of Google to the busier-looking Korean portals, saying, like those interviewed in the AP story, that Koreans prefer a more complex look. I don't know anything about that, but I recall reading something on the Metropolitician a while back (can't find the link now) about the iPod, and how some were skeptical it'd do well because it was too simple-looking, and didn't have any of the bells and whistles Korean consumers, supposedly, expect. In spite, or maybe because of its simplicity the iPod has been popular in Korea from what I hear. If I'm remembering the Metropolitician's point correctly, and I may not be, he said it had a lot to do with how it was marketed, and how it came to be perceived as cool.
A Year in Mokpo looked at "Naver vs. Google" in a November post, and directed us toward an OhMyNews article with a different theory as to why Google failed compared to domestic sites like Naver.
A prevalent theory in Korean dotcom circles is that Google failed to impress demanding Korean customers with its lousy service. This is at least what Naver and other major local portals want Koreans to believe.
Choi Mi Jung, who leads Naver's "Knowledge Man" service, a Wikipedia-like online encyclopedia built by the spontaneous participation of Netizens, scoffs at the sloppy interface and unfriendly way Google's Korean site presents its search results. "It is how meticulously their service was designed that made the difference," she says.
However, the real reason behind Google's difficult path in Korea is that its highly praised search technology was rendered practically useless in the Korean language sphere when major portals decided to block Google search robots from crawling around the content they hold, industry observers universally note.
But to echo again what has been said before, given the failures of other Western corporations in South Korea, due to their failures to adapt to the local market or to a citizenry fiercly loyal to domestic products, I wonder just how successful Google and its products can and will be. But I'm not a tech blogger, and don't know anything about that, so others will have to debate what's going on in more detail.
Anyway, related to both the beginning and the middle of this post is the news story I thought of immediately after reading the Hankyoreh piece. A couple of years ago Google was in some trouble for supposedly exposing minors to explicit content. In contrast to Google at the time, Korean portals have an age-verification system, meaning if you search for what's considered adult content you'll be diverted to a screen requiring you to type in your name and national ID number (주민번호). Google eventually agreed to checking users' ages, but not before locals started slinging the mud, accusing Google of exposing their children to pornographic material. As if the search engine is to blame rather than the children actually doing the searching. Keep in mind, too, softcore porn runs on many cable channels after dark, and it's not all that unusual to see a topless woman or somebody's backside go prancing across the screen. And, again, what's preventing a Korean user from just typing in adult-themed search terms, in Korean, to Google.com, rather than Google.co.kr? Unfortunately I can't find any of the original articles on the moral panic, but I remember the hot air and indignation at Google obscured what otherwise would have been fodder for a reasonable debate: whether Google should have to conform to Korea's standards or the other way around.
My friend Google turned up this picture of Kim Hye-su in the film 타짜, on Korean TV every once in a while. Couldn't find the picture of her backside, or one without a blurred nipple, but Lord knows I tried.
Google also ran into some trouble back in 2006 when hundreds of thousands of those citizen ID numbers were revealed to be wholly or partially exposed online. This Chosun Ilbo article makes the connection between Google and the reported leak, but provides no evidence. In fact, it says the number of victims could be much higher than the 900-some-thousand found in the government search
since there is no protection of personal information on international search engines such as Google or MSN.
Gotta love this line, too:
The first six digits of ID numbers, meaning their date of birth, of an astonishing 808,446 people were exposed on 5,344 websites, revealing an abject failure on the part of domestic public agencies and private firms to protect personal information.
Um . . . yeah, the first six letters are the person's birthday, thanks for keeping that secret. Considering the regularity with which we hear about online security breaches here, I don't know if there's anything about Google that makes it particularly less safe. But perception is reality, sometimes, and perhaps it's much easier to prey on the inherent distrust of foreign entities.
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