Worst Person of Year Vote Scrapped
After allowing online users to pick the “best” and “worst” person of the year, Paran (www.paran.com) scrambled to change voting rules after President Lee Myung-bak emerged as the most unpopular person.
As part of its year-end programs, the Web portal had opened a public vote on “people in the news” earlier this week, and through Monday afternoon, President Lee cemented a lead in the “worst” category. Adding insult to injury was former President Roh Moo-hyun rising atop the “best” list.
Also unpopular among Internet users were Kang Man-soo, the country’s top financial policymaker, who is taking most of the blame for the current economic mess, Culture Minister Yoo In-chon, ridiculed for his off-color rant during a National Assembly audit, and Eo Cheong-soo, the country’s police chief, criticized for violent suppression of anti-government rallies earlier this year.
However, the names of both Lee and Roh, along with those of other politicians, vanished from the section (media.paran.com/2008/person.php) later in the evening, as the Web site is turning the vote into a celebrity-only event.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the country’s most popular personality appears to be figure skating queen Kim Yu-na, while baseball player-turned show host Kang Byung-gyu, recently indicted for illegal gambling after being criticized for lavishly spending taxpayer money while leading a celebrity cheering squad during the Beijing Olympics, is now the most disliked individual. The title of the corner was also changed to “Stars in the News.”
KTH, the operator of Paran and the Internet unit of telecommunications giant KT, struggled to downplay the accusations of censorship, claiming that it was only trying to adjust the results after identifying “significantly abnormal traffic.”
“Although we don’t suspecting that hacking occurred, we concluded that the voting results were distorted due to a significant amount of abnormal traffic during a short period of time, so we had to change the corner,” said a Paran spokesman.
The Lee administration saw its popularity plunge to new depths after being hit by bloggers, first for its controversial decision to lift the ban on U.S. beef imports earlier this year, and recently for its alleged ineptitude in economic policies.
Internet TV Gets Green Light for Next Month
12-12-2008
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
More Koreans are expected to watch television via the Internet next year, although it remains to be seen whether the new services prove to be the future of household entertainment.
In a lavish ceremony at the COEX in Seoul Friday, industry leaders and policymakers gathered to celebrate the launching of commercial Internet protocol television (IPTV) services, which represents the latest development in digital technology.
“This opens a new era for the country in broadcasting and telecommunications, which will bring a revolutionary impact in everyday life and introduce interactive multimedia services that will empower viewers,” said President Lee Myung-bak in a keynote speech.
“Over the past decade, the country’s broadcasting sector had been slow to accept the industrial potential of media, and we now must make that step forward. We need to use IPTV as a platform to emerge as a leading nation in broadcasting and communications, which will also be critical in creating more jobs and advancing technologies,” he said.
After months of difficult talks, telecommunications operators have finally completed their deals with national television networks over the sourcing of content.
Telecommunications giant KT, which controls 90 percent of the country’s fixed-line telephones and nearly 45 percent of broadband Internet subscribers, has been providing terrestrial programs on its “Mega TV” network since November.
The two other IPTV operators, SK Broadband and LG Dacom, have recently reached agreements with national channels KBS, MBC and SBS, and both companies plan to provide live broadcasting starting Jan. 1.
SK Broadband will charge IPTV customers 14,500 won (about $10) per month, while LG Dacom set its rate at 14,000 won per month.
KT is charging a monthly fee of 16,000 won for Mega TV, although the rate drops to 9,200 won on three-year deals that also bundle the company’s telephone and broadband Internet services.
The company is also planning to launch a premium service next June, which provides 80 channels, compared to the current 33, for 23,000 won a month.
IPTV provides viewers with a wealth of interactive features, including video-on-demand (VOD), e-commerce, and online banking services as well as of conventional television programming.
It embodies the hopes of telecommunications carriers who are desperate to find new sources of revenue in the saturated domestic market and cash in on their broadband investments.
However, it’s questionable whether the market will be enough for telecom companies to make up for their decline in traditional voice services, as they will be competing in a mature pay-TV market, consisting of about 17 million households, dominated by cable operators.
Another worry is the fragile alliance between the Internet carriers and national broadcasters. In a bizarre arrangement, the television networks agreed with IPTV operators to provide their content first and negotiate their value later.
This means that KT and its industry rivals are yet to have an idea of how much they will be paying for content, thus opening the possibility of a bigger dispute down the road.
Winter Break News/HW
Big Titles to Declare Game Renaissance in 2009
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Tired of all the gloom-and-doom stories about the economy, collapsing companies and slashed payrolls?
Granted, it seems impossible to avoid depressing headlines these days, but what’s also difficult to miss is the strong, positive vibe in Korea’s active computer games industry, one of the few business sectors where people aren’t looking for tall buildings to leap from.
At a time when companies all around, mindful of the economic downturn and murky annual forecasts, are cutting expectations, trimming hiring and searching for inexpensive solutions, online game publishers are still talking about growth, profit and expansion.
NCsoft, the domestic kingpin of the gaming sector, has its spirits soaring with its new fantasy role-playing game “Aion,” the industry’s most-anticipated debut in years, so far managing to live up to its pre-launch hype, gathering around 150,000 to 200,000 concurrent users per day since its Nov. 25 launch.
It took NCsoft four years and 25 billion won (about $19 million) to release its latest title, but the lavish spending might end up looking like a bargain investment if Aion indeed proves as the heir apparent to the company’s iconic “Lineage” franchise. The 100 billion-won flops that were Richard Garriott and his Tabula Rasa now seem like distant memories.
NCsoft is not the only gaming company that is making huge strides this winter. Industry rival CJ Internet is gathering a massive following with its own role-playing game, “Prius,” which would have been the story of the year if not for Aion’s virtuoso performance. CJ Internet will mount a stronger challenge to NCsoft next year with“Dragon Ball Online,” a role-playing game based on the popular Japanese cartoon series.
California-based Blizzard Entertainment had Korean companies trembling last month when it released “Wrath of the Lich King,” the second expansion set of its “World of Warcraft” (WOW), the world’s most popular role-playing franchise, with more than 11 million monthly subscribers.
The gaming sector is certainly ending 2008 with a bang, and gamers may love 2009 even more, with industry heavyweights CJ Internet, Blizzard, Neowiz Games and Yedang Online preparing a slew of big-name titles to challenge NCsoft’s supremacy.
Add that to NHN, the country’s biggest Internet company and operator of top portal Naver (www.naver.com), becoming serious about the role-playing genre and the gaming scene looks ripe for a full-blown renaissance.
It’s funny how history repeats itself. It was in 1998, in the midst of the Asian financial crisis, that Korea’s computer games industry started to come around, with Blizzard’s “StarCraft” becoming as popular as kimchi and NCsoft rewriting the book of role-playing games with Lineage.
Exactly a decade later, games continue to prove as a recession-proof business. When times are tough, people seek escapist entertainment, which nowadays is all about staying home, and games perfectly fit into the picture.
Even the rising jobless rate is a boon for game companies, as analysts point to past correlations between employment levels and playing time.
According to the Korea Game Industry Agency (KOGIA), the domestic online games market was worth an estimated 2.7 trillion won this year, and is expected to grow to around 3.4 trillion won in 2009.
“Although it remains to be seen how the big-name titles of major gaming companies will perform, the local online games market looks ready for strong growth in 2009 based on the popularity of new games Aion, Prius and Dragon Ball Online,” said Hwang Seung-taek, an analyst at Hana Daetoo Securities.
“There will be a lot of new games, but the performance of Aion should be considered a barometer for the gaming industry’s growth potential. Aion is off to a bright start, and the quality of game play, including its unique concept of `realm vs realm’ combat and `player vs environment’ structure, is impressive,” he said.
NHN Getting Serious
Aion has indeed burst the floodgates open, and NHN is one of the many companies looking for a good splash. The company controls more than 70 percent of the search market through the dominant presence of Naver and also operates Hangame (www.hangame.com), a popular online game portal.
Despite the success of Hangame, however, NHN’s track record in massive multiplayer online games (MMO) has been weak.
The Internet giant is now hoping that “C9,” another hyped up role-playing game eyeing a debut next year, will give them a better reputation in the genre.
The game, built around combat and quests based on a “Lord of the Rings”-like setting, is the product of an all-star lineup of game programmers hired by NHN, which is confident that gamers will respond to the sophisticated 3D graphics, large-scale combat systems and unique game mechanics.
NHN will also be the publisher of “Warhammer Online,” a popular role-playing game by Britain’s Games Workshop, which is slated for domestic release early next year.
CJ Internet has scored big with Prius and expects to do the same with Dragon Ball. But the company’s biggest weapon just might be “Dynasty Warriors Online,” a tactical action game developed by Japan’s Koei, which entered its open beta phase Saturday.
Dynasty Warriors is the online version of the console game of the same name, which sold more than 15 million copies worldwide.
The dynamic action and impressive graphics of the original are transferred to the online version, which took CJ Internet years to localize. The company added a few wrinkles, including the introduction of a social class system, to adapt to Korean gamers.
“The quality of action is something that has never been seen in online games before, and users will not experience any drop offs from the console version,” said Kwon Yeong-shik, an official from CJ Internet.
However, the biggest news of 2009 will undoubtedly be Blizzard’s release of “StarCraft II,” expected during the first-half of next year.
The game is a sequel to StarCraft, which sold more than 4.5 million copies in Korea alone since its release in 1998 and nearly single-handedly spawned an industry of Internet cafes, called “PC Rooms,” that are now ubiquitous around the country.
The game was also responsible for the emergence of “e-sports,” with millions of viewers attracted to professional StarCraft players battling on television with live commentary and analysis from experts.
Although StarCraft II, sold through CDs, won’t compete directly with online games that are downloaded from computer servers, industry watchers expect the game to have a “nuclear impact” that could topple any other title regardless of genre.
Neowiz Games will be the publisher of “Age of Conan,” a popular role-playing game developed by Norway’s Funcom, which is set for domestic release during the second-half of next year. The game has been a top seller since its release in North America and Europe in May.
Yedang Online, which has generated a significant following for “Audition” and “Pristontale,” is preparing “War of Ancient,” a role-playing game based on the wars between mythical Asian nations, built around a storyline written by popular comic writer, Ya Seol-lok.
Yahoo Uses Samsung to Get Into TV
01-09-09
By Kim Yoo-chul
Korea Times Correspondent
LAS VEGAS ― Yahoo Inc. will bolster its partnership with Samsung Electronics for Internet and television business, the founder of the company said Friday.
“Yahoo took a meaningful first step toward Internet-enabled TVs. But the key things are how we can take proper software and offer more tailored services,’’ Jerry Yang, the co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo, said in an exclusive interview with The Korea Times. The interview was made on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) under way at Las Vegas Convention Center.
“As TV technologies are available, Yahoo is interested in expanding open-source services with TV manufacturers. Samsung Electronics is our best partner,’’ the founder said, adding, “We are committed to solidifying our partnership with Samsung.’’
The comments came a few days after Yahoo unveiled a list of partners for its plan to combine Internet and televisions into one, hoping the fusion business will be more appealing to consumers.
At the show, Yahoo said it has struck deals with companies including Samsung, LG Electronics, Sony and Vizio, which will make high-definition TVs that back Yahoo’s online service.
“Yahoo wants Samsung to introduce more innovative WiFi and Internet-based TVs, as our widget services can make third parties have enhanced visual experiences through Samsung TVs,’’ Yang said.
Samsung plans to sell some two million units of Internet television sets this year, according to its spokesman. The world’s biggest producer of flat-screens plans to sell a total of 26 million TV sets this year.
Yang has recently unveiled a new version of the giant’s popular Yahoo Mail that was rebuilt into a powerful communications hub.
It allows users to access third-party applications that will be tightly integrated with e-mail, and will reorganize in-boxes into a social platform that can, for instance, prioritize messages based on a user’s personal preferences.
That has been widely recognized as an innovation.
Ever since the dawn of the Internet age, technology companies have been seeking the convergence of online and TV segments, but efforts have failed to take off as many consumers shun such products, believing that they are difficult to use.
But at the show, Yahoo has been gaining popularity as leading a TV maker. It is exhibiting TVs equipped with Internet applications that allow more interaction with viewers.
“We are receiving feedback from widget services, which are exciting,’’ Yang said. The widgets will allow viewers to interact more with the programs that they are watching.
Yahoo, which has lagged behind its rival Google in the Web search market, plans to use the technology as means to gain new sales revenue.
On Jan. 5, Samsung and Yahoo struck a partnership over a new range of network high-definition TVs that are to be made available this spring on the back of the Yahoo Widget Engine.
The TVs, which are equipped with a built-in Ethernet port, will be able to access Internet content built on applications using Yahoo’s platforms.
“How can we be more helpful to you? I appreciate Samsung has been taking the lead in the next-generation of the flat-screen TV market,’’ Yang said.
In the South Korean Internet market, NHN makes domination look easy. Expanding the borders of its search kingdom, however, has proven to be a difficult challenge.
The company, which controls more than 70 percent of Korea’s search market through Naver (www.naver.com), had been looking to expand internationally and picked Japan as its first target. Nine years later, NHN is still stuck on the first step.
Granted, it isn’t that NHN is totally missing out. Hangame Japan (www.hangame.co.jp), the localized version of NHN’s online games portal, has enjoyed modest success.
However, finding a winning formula for Naver, which would be a truer indicator of the company’s overseas performance, remains elusive. After five years of irrelevance, NHN closed its Japanese search page in 2005 to the noise of crickets.
Obviously, NHN doesn’t intend to remain a bad joke for long, as it is renewing its attempt to penetrate the Japanese search market. Last week, the company announced the establishment of the Next Human Search Technology Corporation (NHST) Japan, a Fukuoka-based unit that will perform database analysis and study search patterns.
The new affiliate will work closely with Naver Japan (www.naver.jp), established in November 2007 as the headquarters of NHN’s Japanese search business, thus freeing NHN Japan to focus predominantly on online games.
NHST Japan is listed as the local unit of NHST, a China-based company established in December 2007, and represents NHN’s efforts to streamline its business strategies and product development in the three Asian countries.
NHST Japan is also seen as the latest sign that NHN is close to revealing its new Japanese search engine.
The company had initially planned to launch the search engine late last year, but the debut was delayed repeatedly, with NHN ending up looking like the “boy who cried wolf,’’ in the words of company chief executive Choi Hwi-young.
And the point of the story is, as always, the wolf eventually shows up. Although NHN has yet to announce the details of its Japanese business plans for the year, company officials expect Naver Japan to launch its search engine as early as during the first quarter.
“The development of the search engine is nearing completion and we won’t keep you waiting too long for the beta version,’’ said an NHN official, adding that Naver Japan had recently completed hiring its local workforce.
“Differentiating our services from other search engines in Japan will be key for us and we’ve invested a lot of effort to come up with something new and innovative. We want to reveal a finished and polished product, not a rough and green one, and the timing of the launch was the least of our concerns,’’ he said.
Competing Against Yahoo, Google
To gain a foothold in Japan, the world’s second largest search market behind the United States, NHN would be forced to compete with global Internet giants it so successfully fended off at home.
Yahoo! Japan and Google Japan, locked in a tight battle for supremacy, control about 85 percent of the Japanese search market. The biggest scrap from the table falls to Goo, a search engine operated by telecommunications operator NTT and MSN Japan.
It remains to be seen whether Naver can stick out from the pile or get buried under it, but the recent experience of Chinese search engine Baidu doesn’t inspire much confidence.
Baidu has been pushing into the Japanese search market with passion and hired Toshikazu Inoue, former search director of Yahoo! Japan, to head its Japanese unit and spend lavishly to hire top engineering talent.
But despite rolling out its Japanese search engine early last year, Baidu only has a 0.1 percent market share.
“Japan differs from China and Korea in that Internet users haven’t been navigating heavily toward local search services, and that makes the country the second most important market for many search engines aside of their home turf,’’ said an official from one of NHN’s Korean rivals.
“Naver will basically be forced to compete directly with Yahoo, Google and MSN in search technology. I wonder whether they can come up with something significantly new and better, but history hasn’t been kind to failed search engines, regardless of the market. Companies like Alta Vista and Lycos were never allowed a second life,’’ he said.
Although NHN declined to comment on the specific features of its sequel search engine, company officials say the focus is to customize services to the habits of Japanese online users, representing a different approach from NHN’s first try, when company officials claimed the “social and cultural’’ similarities between the countries would allow Naver to excel in Japan with an identical business model to that used in Korea.
Lee Hae-jin, founder of Naver and now NHN’s chief strategy officer (CSO), has been heading the company’s task in Japan since 2007 to develop search services for the local market.
Although NHN officials say that Naver’s Japanese site will have its own identity and not merely be a translated extension of its Korean site, it’s questionable whether there will be enough differentiation.
The secret to NHN’s success in Korea is simply explained by “Knowledge-In,’’ which allowed users to question and edit search results, and “Integrated Search,’’ which sectionalizes search results by type of content and source, such as Web, news, images, blogs and videos.
However, as Yahoo! Answers and Google’s Universal Search can attest, those features have become conventional.
Success in Japan is crucial to NHN’s long-term growth strategy, as the Korean market for them continues to decrease. NHN saw its net profit drop 10.7 percent to 83 billion won in the third-quarter last year, while operating profit dropped 13.4 percent from the previous quarter to 111.3 billion won.
It’s 292.9 billion won revenue represented nearly a 4 percent slide, the first time the company disclosed a decline in quarterly growth since being listed on the stock market in October 2002.
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
In the South Korean Internet market, NHN makes domination look easy. Expanding the borders of its search kingdom, however, has proven to be a difficult challenge.
The company, which controls more than 70 percent of Korea’s search market through Naver (www.naver.com), had been looking to expand internationally and picked Japan as its first target. Nine years later, NHN is still stuck on the first step.
Granted, it isn’t that NHN is totally missing out. Hangame Japan (www.hangame.co.jp), the localized version of NHN’s online games portal, has enjoyed modest success.
However, finding a winning formula for Naver, which would be a truer indicator of the company’s overseas performance, remains elusive. After five years of irrelevance, NHN closed its Japanese search page in 2005 to the noise of crickets.
Obviously, NHN doesn’t intend to remain a bad joke for long, as it is renewing its attempt to penetrate the Japanese search market. Last week, the company announced the establishment of the Next Human Search Technology Corporation (NHST) Japan, a Fukuoka-based unit that will perform database analysis and study search patterns.
The new affiliate will work closely with Naver Japan (www.naver.jp), established in November 2007 as the headquarters of NHN’s Japanese search business, thus freeing NHN Japan to focus predominantly on online games.
NHST Japan is listed as the local unit of NHST, a China-based company established in December 2007, and represents NHN’s efforts to streamline its business strategies and product development in the three Asian countries.
NHST Japan is also seen as the latest sign that NHN is close to revealing its new Japanese search engine.
The company had initially planned to launch the search engine late last year, but the debut was delayed repeatedly, with NHN ending up looking like the “boy who cried wolf,’’ in the words of company chief executive Choi Hwi-young.
And the point of the story is, as always, the wolf eventually shows up. Although NHN has yet to announce the details of its Japanese business plans for the year, company officials expect Naver Japan to launch its search engine as early as during the first quarter.
“The development of the search engine is nearing completion and we won’t keep you waiting too long for the beta version,’’ said an NHN official, adding that Naver Japan had recently completed hiring its local workforce.
“Differentiating our services from other search engines in Japan will be key for us and we’ve invested a lot of effort to come up with something new and innovative. We want to reveal a finished and polished product, not a rough and green one, and the timing of the launch was the least of our concerns,’’ he said.
Competing Against Yahoo, Google
To gain a foothold in Japan, the world’s second largest search market behind the United States, NHN would be forced to compete with global Internet giants it so successfully fended off at home.
Yahoo! Japan and Google Japan, locked in a tight battle for supremacy, control about 85 percent of the Japanese search market. The biggest scrap from the table falls to Goo, a search engine operated by telecommunications operator NTT and MSN Japan.
It remains to be seen whether Naver can stick out from the pile or get buried under it, but the recent experience of Chinese search engine Baidu doesn’t inspire much confidence.
Baidu has been pushing into the Japanese search market with passion and hired Toshikazu Inoue, former search director of Yahoo! Japan, to head its Japanese unit and spend lavishly to hire top engineering talent.
But despite rolling out its Japanese search engine early last year, Baidu only has a 0.1 percent market share.
“Japan differs from China and Korea in that Internet users haven’t been navigating heavily toward local search services, and that makes the country the second most important market for many search engines aside of their home turf,’’ said an official from one of NHN’s Korean rivals.
“Naver will basically be forced to compete directly with Yahoo, Google and MSN in search technology. I wonder whether they can come up with something significantly new and better, but history hasn’t been kind to failed search engines, regardless of the market. Companies like Alta Vista and Lycos were never allowed a second life,’’ he said.
Although NHN declined to comment on the specific features of its sequel search engine, company officials say the focus is to customize services to the habits of Japanese online users, representing a different approach from NHN’s first try, when company officials claimed the “social and cultural’’ similarities between the countries would allow Naver to excel in Japan with an identical business model to that used in Korea.
Lee Hae-jin, founder of Naver and now NHN’s chief strategy officer (CSO), has been heading the company’s task in Japan since 2007 to develop search services for the local market.
Although NHN officials say that Naver’s Japanese site will have its own identity and not merely be a translated extension of its Korean site, it’s questionable whether there will be enough differentiation.
The secret to NHN’s success in Korea is simply explained by “Knowledge-In,’’ which allowed users to question and edit search results, and “Integrated Search,’’ which sectionalizes search results by type of content and source, such as Web, news, images, blogs and videos.
However, as Yahoo! Answers and Google’s Universal Search can attest, those features have become conventional.
Success in Japan is crucial to NHN’s long-term growth strategy, as the Korean market for them continues to decrease. NHN saw its net profit drop 10.7 percent to 83 billion won in the third-quarter last year, while operating profit dropped 13.4 percent from the previous quarter to 111.3 billion won.
It’s 292.9 billion won revenue represented nearly a 4 percent slide, the first time the company disclosed a decline in quarterly growth since being listed on the stock market in October 2002.
Investors Returning to Samsung Electronics, Hynix
By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
To South Korean chip duo Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor, the market is favorable.
Amid increased prices of benchmark computer chips, coupled with industry consolidation, foreign investors are buying stocks in the world’s two biggest DRAM makers.
Immediate turnaround signs on the demand side are still dim due to the bad economy.
Still, DRAM prices have steadily soared on hopes of improvement among chip suppliers after Germany’s Qimonda filed for insolvency.
Korean semiconductor makers are spurring on migrating to thinner technologies for more shares when consolidation is final.
According to Korea Exchange (KRX), foreign investors bought 587 billion won ($427.2 million) worth of Samsung stocks, or 1.15 million shares, and also snapped up 75.7 billion won (8.38 million shares) in Hynix stocks from Jan. 28 to Feb. 6. Hynix shares hiked 34 percent in just eight trading days, and Samsung jumped 23.3 percent.
“Samsung and Hynix will be winners when the swirl ends. Their market shares and abilities to apply advanced chip processing technologies in new products make investors feel safer than other chipmakers’ stocks,” said Kim Gee-soo, an analyst at Goodmorning Shinhan Securities said, Monday.
“Foreign brokerages say no meaningful signs were seen on the demand side. But it’s clear that DRAM price hit bottom thanks to drastic decreases on the supply side,” Kim added.
Contract prices of DRAM chips, widely used in personal computers, increased through early February from January, according to DRAMeXchange _ a Taiwanese online chip clearinghouse. Mainstream 1-gigabit double-data-rate-two (DDR2) chips rose 8.6 percent to $0.88 from $0.81 last month.
Meanwhile, spot prices of DRAM chips have been rebounding from an unprecedented slump, as cash-strapped manufacturers cut back amid lackluster demand.
New Landscape
The DRAM business has now entered into another “destructive phase” in the business cycle.
Massive and bold investment to boost additional capacity in 2007 on higher hopes for Microsoft’s new Windows Vista operating system have led to an oversupply of chips, while the deteriorating global economy dragged down demand for consumer electronics gadgets.
The outcome was catastrophic for chipmakers.
According to research firm iSuppli, DRAM prices have plummeted 48 percent in the past six months.
As prices of the benchmark DRAM chips sank to a “break-even-cost” level, most leading manufacturers posted heavy losses. Even worse, some chipmakers needed emergency cash injection from governments for survival.
In the fourth quarter of last year, Samsung Electronics suffered its first loss since it began disclosing quarterly results in 2000.
Sales of its chip division fell 18 percent to 3.92 trillion won. Hynix also posted a net loss of 1.33 trillion won in the quarter from a net loss of 462 billion won year-on-year.
Situations were worse for Japan’s Elpida and Taiwanese chipmakers, raising the possibility that the whole chip industry will be overhauled very soon worldwide.
Tokyo-based Elpida predicted the sector would eventually be separated into two groups _ one led by the company and smaller Taiwan makers, and another by the Samsung-Hynix allies.
Elpida reported a fifth straight quarterly loss, as its DRAM prices stayed well below the break-even point.
Elpida chairman Yukio Sakamoto urged Taiwan DRAM makers to come under Elpida-based technology, as the world’s third-biggest chipmaker doesn’t want to be kicked out of the market.
“The best scenario would be Taiwanese chipmakers forming a united front guided by Elpida,” Sakamoto said last week.
Elpida has been discussing a possible merger with Taiwanese makers Powerchip, ProMOS Technologies and Rexchip, its joint venture with Powerchip.
Analysts say chip manufacturers will likely coalesce into three groups within a couple of years before getting further narrowed to two in the next three to five years.
Other players in the sector include Micron Technology of the United States, partners with Nanya Technology, Taiwan’s No. 2 DRAM memory chipmaker.
The Taiwanese government is reviewing the possibility of buy a stake in Elpida to help consolidate its struggling memory chip sector.
Officials say Elpida, which asked for emergency state help, will grab the chance to survive if Taipei accepts the offer.
“Buying a stake in Elpida will strengthen consolidation between the Japanese and Taiwanese DRAM makers,” said an analyst at Woori Investment & Securities. “But industry consolidation won’t hurt Samsung and Hynix leadership.”
Buy Call?
The focus is now on whether investors will buy Samsung Electronics and Hynix stocks. Analysts and brokerages, however, have differing opinions on whether this is the right time to buy them.
“We believe that Samsung Electronics passed its earnings trough in the fourth quarter,” said Citigroup in its report to clients.
“Under new management, Samsung is expected to stimulate its growth engines … thanks to the recovery of the memory chip market driven by the supply adjustment.”
The brokerage also raised its target price on Hynix, citing the likelihood of a strong memory industry recovery.
“Hynix is the most leveraged player on a cyclical upturn in memory, with a projected dramatic improvement in return-on-equity,” according to the research firm.
Along with the market outlook, analysts say the technology prowess of the Korean pair adds another reason to consider buying their stocks.
On Sunday, Hynix developed the world’s first one-gigabit DRAM chip using advanced 44-nanometer technology, with mass production of the chip expected in the third quarter.
A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.
Samsung also said it aims to launch production of its recently debuted DDR2 DRAM chip and module using a 40-nanometer technology this year.
Technology advancements strongly require massive investments and pose bigger technical challenges.
The Korean rivals are currently using 50- or 60-nanometer chip processing technologies.
Thinner circuitries enable chips to squeeze more functions and memory capacities, and at cheaper unit costs.
In October last year, Elpida said it might freeze a plan for the production of 50-nanometer chips.
“More Korean-led market expansion will be possible when the newest chips are massively produced. Even in the short-term, Samsung and Hynix are attractive,” a fund manager told The Korea Times.
April 5th 2009
Virus Used to Make Better Lithium Batteries
Lithium-ion batteries have become the most common rechargeable batteries for consumer electronics, such as laptops and mobile phones, and are also seeing growing demand in next-generation vehicles such as electronic and hybrid cars.
So the race in the technology sector is to make the batteries pack a stronger electronic punch, and a team of multinational scientists now suggest that biological help might provide a lucrative solution.
In a study published in peer-review journal Science, researchers led by Lee Yoon-jeong and Lee Hyeon-jeong of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Kang Ki-suk of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) claimed that a certain type of virus, M13, could be used for producing nano-structured electrodes that give the batteries more power.
M13 is a commonly found bacteriophage that is about 1 micrometer long, 10 nanometers in diameter and encapsulated by the major coat protein P8, and has been studied for uses in nanostructures and nanotechnology.
The researchers manipulated the genes of the virus to create anode materials, which were then attached to carbon nanotubes that were used to produce lithium-ion batteries that easily overpower existing models. According to the tests described in the Science paper, the output of the M13 batteries were nearly 10 times stronger than conventional lithium-ion batteries used today.
In lithium-ion batteries, lithium ions move between the battery’s anode and cathode, with the high energy density producing the required voltage for electronic products.
To put it roughly, high-powered anode materials are required for producing batteries with stronger jolts, while high-capacity cathode materials are needed to make batteries with longer lives.
Producing virus-enabled electrodes for lithium-ion batteries have not be an unfamiliar subject, a concept first suggested by researchers led by MIT’s Angela Belcher in a 2006 study published in Science.
Although the study suggested a way to produce cobalt oxide, a popular material for cathodes, from certain types of viruses, producing effective anode materials posed another challenge.
During current research, Lee and her colleagues manipulated the genes of the M13 viruses to show an affinity for carbon nanotubes on one end and for anode materials, based on amorphous iron-phosphate, on the other.
Amorphous iron-phosphate anodes had been lauded for their stability, but lamented for their low power output. However, the recent study shows that carbon nanotubes could provide a solution for higher power by speeding the movements of ions.
“The study was a result of synergy between nanotechnology, biotechnology and energy technology,” Kang sai
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The mobile Web is here, but the paucity of excitement is evident among wireless users who are reluctant to pay premiums for services they rate as dull and patchy.
Maybe it’s time to give the unused hotkeys another look, however, as mobile telephony operators, desperate to hit the data goldmine, are finally showing real commitment in making portable Web browsing more affordable.
In a news conference last week, SK Telecom, which controls more than half of the country’s wireless market, said it will be announcing new flat-rate plans for its mobile Internet services sometime around June.
This will allow SK Telecom customers to pay a single monthly charge for all their data transfers, with no separate counting of minutes, content or megabytes of downloads.
In rolling out its new data rates, the company is trying to steal the thunder of its industry archrival, KTF, which is looking to expand the package of content available to users of its flat-rate plan, which charges 10,000 won (about $7.5) per month.
Although SK Telecom has yet to decide on the specifics, the new flat-rate program, which promises unlimited data usage, will charge users between 20,000 and 30,000 won per month.
LG Telecom, the smallest of the three mobile carriers, which has a 6,000-won flat-rate plan for its “Oz” data services, is also planning to introduce new rate plans as early as next month.
Consumers have been lukewarm about the previous flat-rate plans provided by the companies, with their monthly data allowances drying up after posting a few blog posts or trotting around a few Web pages. And the flat rates only cover browsing activities; subscribers still have to pay separately for downloaded content.
SK Telecom currently provides a monthly plan that allows users to use about 33 megabytes for 10,000 won, while KTF provides 8.4 megabytes at the same rate.
SK Telecom’s new flat rate will quash such cynicism, according to Oh Se-hyun, who heads the company’s convergence and Internet business division.
“The problem now is that consumers signed to our 10,000-won flat-rate plans are dumbfounded when they learn they are paying separately for the programs they downloaded, and we intend to eliminate this confusion,” Oh said.
“Our new flat rates will make things simple, allowing users to access an unlimited amount of content on a fixed charge. Currently, more than 2 million of our subscribers are signed to data flat-rate plans, and we plan to expand this number substantially through the new rates,” he said.
However, with it simplifying costs and refusing to charge separately for content downloads, it remains to be seen how data revenue and content providers will be affected.
With increasing numbers of wireless users switching to data-enabled handsets, mobile carriers have been hoping for data to have a bigger role in the growth of average revenue per user (ARPU), with voice sales beginning to stall here, a country that has more mobile phones than heads.
However, despite the latest improvement in technology, data services in general remain slow and awkward and have no chance at competing with conventional computer-based services in terms of content, which has critics questioning whether the mobile Web will ever be fully embraced by consumers.
However, price continues to be the biggest problem. Wireless users won’t touch the data services with a 10-foot pole when complicated rate plans have them paying separately for content use and data traffic.
Many of those who actually click the track-wheels on their handsets have sworn never to do so again.
During last month’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), an international baseball tournament held in the United States in which South Korea finished second, online message boards were smoking with complaints from mobile users who were hitting the roof after receiving bloated bills.
Mobile-phone carriers charge about 2 to 3.5 won per kilobyte, so it takes about 5,000 won (about $3.7) to download a pop song (about 3 megabytes) and about 10,000 won for five minutes of television streamed through data networks.
So many hardcore baseball fans who couldn’t resist the urge to watch the games later found themselves paying over 100,000 won in data charges.
The new flat rates introduced by the wireless carriers would make it easier for wireless users to avoid such “data-bomb” bills.
Despite the vast improvement in technology, wireless carriers are seeing stunted growth in mobile data revenue, which combined to account for less than 18 percent of their total revenue last year.
SK Telecom’s average data revenue per user hovers around 9,000 won (about $6.7) per month, after reaching over 11,000 won in December 2007. KTF is getting about 7,000 won, while the number is around 3,000 won for LG Telecom.
