I don’t have much time today as I’m in a client workshop from 9-6. Ouch.
But I read this post on the Communities Dominate Brands blog about why Korean social phenomenon Cyworld has actually succeeded.
Predominantly, it’s because of a couple of things:
1) South Korean internet policy largely asks for peoples real names in registration of services such as Cyworld. this raises the trust levels implicit in the system.
2) SK blogs are more about a social and emotional representation of self, rather than an intellectual representation prevalent in western blogs. The need to express one’s true self in a highly trusted social framework is an enabler for understanding each other, each other’s friends and therefore deepening relationships. S Koreans will write for their friends and not for complete strangers.
I’m paraphrasing hugely here, but these points are interesting to me.
The blog entry goes on to describe translatable facets of the Cyworld framework that can be exported, beyond the cultural ideals of SK to other countries. Woven in to this, there are also some ideas of what constitutes good practice.
Some interesting comparisons with 2L, MySpace and Habbo Hotel.
Anyway, enough of my scratchy, surface ramblings. Here is the post:
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2006/11/cyworld_insight.html
November 6, 2006
Experience Design