NCsoft Expanding Non-Game Biz

NCsoft, the online computer game company is growing its non-game business. They are trying to make an effort to diversify its business portfolio. NCsoft is organizing a new team that would lead the sales and marketing of non-game Internet Businesses. They are looking forward to start online identification and social-networking services. During the process of planning this new business, they are hoping a mid-career journalist Hwang Soon-hyun, from Chosun llbo to take charge of the strategic affairs of the internet service operation. It is common for Korean Internet companies to recruit IT journalists for their high position job.
NCsoft is one of the largest game companies in South Korea and has produced high quality games such as “Lineage” and “Guild Wars.” These two games were a big hit in South Korea with thousands of users. However, as the growth of the game sector has been stopped, the company started to look for new business items in the non-game sector. They began to operate in-house software studio called Openmaru which they made a number of Web utility services. Until now, NCsoft has invested approximately 30 billion won on the non-game business. One of the new items they made was called “Open ID project” which allowed internet users to access multiple web sites with and ID and a password. NCsoft has already become a leader in the Open ID business in South Korea and looking forward to improve through producing innovative services online.
NCsoft has been passive in promoting activities of its non-game sector for several reasons.1) They have yet to make any profit from the Openmaru projects. 2)in its oversee(U.S), the movement was sometimes interpreted as a sign of the firm’s decreasing investment in the game sector. In addition, the company made future plans of nurturing the non-game business by building several partnership deals with web portal sites. Since the beginning of this year, they signed contracts with Daum Communications and Yahoo Korea to provide its Web tools.

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2008/03/123_21073.html

20620042 - entry 2

Lexus: Too Japanese for the Japanese

I read an article about a Japanese Motor Company called the Lexus. Lexus was introduced by Toyota to aim at drivers who want luxury Cars. Toyota wanted to
sell luxury cars like other German motor companies (BMW and Audi). However,
from a recent research, most car buyers, even Japanese people prefer German cars
rather than Lexus as their choice in buying luxury cars. An example of a 46 year old doctor says that "Lexus makes excellent cars but if you ask me whether I'd buy one, the answer is no because is too Japanese for my tastes". The reason he chose foreign brands is that they have more individuality. For most Japanese car buyers, "foreign"
refers to "German". Lexus has been the top selling luxury nameplate in the U.S 19years ago. But they didn't sell cars until the year 2005. When they began selling cars in their homeland, it was too late to grab all the luxury car buyers because of the German brands dominating the high end. They are still having hard time competing the competition with the German brands. The main problem they had was the initial lineup. The company started only with three models: GS sports sedan, SC convertible and the IS sedan. All three had previously been available in Japan under the Toyota nameplate for about 20% less than the Lexus models. Also, the buzz Toyota created for Lexus have benefited the Germans. The rivals say they saw increased interest as customers visited foreign motor company’s showrooms to compare (such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi). From the research, it says 80% of early Lexus buyers were former Toyota driver and only 5% came from Mercedes or BMW. Some disadvantages for foreign companies are that the steering wheels are on the opposite side and the streets of Japan are very narrow. Still, few are giving up on Lexus in Japan. Lexus is still trying their best by launching the latest version LS sedan. They are also trying to create a brand image to rival Audi, BMW, and Mercedes.

20620042 – Entry 1

Why do we care about 'Won-Dollar Rate'?

I read an article talking about the international value of Won currency. It says that Won currency fell to its weakest point against Dollar and Yen among recent years’ figures, which means that we need to have 1,033.7 Won to buy a Dollar and 1,061.58 Won for 100 Yen.

As the countries are getting more and more related to each other, the effects of an event taking place in a certain part of the world is spreading its range to all over the world. Economically, this situation is very important because things happening in U.S.A surely effect the economy of Korea. In this kind of circumstances, a remarkable change among currencies is very important. People become happy and unhappy by the ups and downs of a certain currency against others. Why? What about it? Well, there are some good aspects as wells as bad aspects when a certain currency’s value falls or rises.

If Won-Dollar rate goes up, corporations which are exporting good to U.S.A will be happy. They can sell more products than they did before, because the prices of the goods they are selling to America will be relatively cheaper. On the other hand, companies which are importing goods from America to Korea will be unhappy if the Won-Dollar rate goes up. They have to pay more money than they did because the value of Won currency against Dollar has gone down. Then, the prices of the imported goods in domestic market will rise in order to profitable for those companies who have imported it. Consequently, this will affect other economy markets in Korea and eventually will bring inflation.

The above explanation is not just a theory, but a real practice which is taking place right now. Then, what should we do about it? Well, there is no best answer. The change itself is not 100 percent bad. It brings good effects to some people, as well as bad effects to some people. And also, blocking changes in currency values is impossible because the currencies are somewhat organic. They go up and down. They don’t stay still. So, it is rather good to try to block rapid changes than trying to block the change itself. Then, it won’t affect the markets greatly in a certain period of time. Furthermore, we should develop our economy qualities, not just growing its volume. Then, we will become stronger and will be able to make ourselves be safe even in rapid changes. We all know that it’s not easy in real life. There are lots of things for us to concern, and we can’t even control all the things that we are supposed to care of. As it is said before, there is no best answer. We just have to do our best to survive in this rapidly changing world market.

Reference : http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2008/03/123_20871.html


20700273 Park, Yong - Kyun Entry 2

Green Strategy in business

I read a article about American green policy. Green policy is representing some kinds of alternative energy industries. In Korea, alternative energy industries are not common. Because people think it is not a profitable industry. But In America, the images of this industries are completely different. The green industries are considered as a great promise business in USA. And even the presidential candidates, Hillery Clinton and Barack Obama, selected the green policy as the main force among their promises. I think the fossilizated resources, you know the petroleu, natural gas and so on, will run out soon. And when the resoures are run out, what will happen? Many pessimists think that human will return to the primitive time. But I think it's a great chance to rule the all economy bases of the world. When we develops the main technology of alternative energy, and we will be another Rockefeller, the king of petroleum. In USA, the developments of main technologies were already launched in USA. And the consequences are now in market and related businesses are rapidly growing.

Although the first was USA, but we can catch up them soon. We have to do benchmarking from American green technology companies. I think the race is just started. And our government and companies have to invest in the green technology soon. You know Samsung, south korea's global corporation, is a number one semiconductor producer. But the era of semiconductor is dependent on the green policy. If we can't make ready, we have to pay high royalty to use the innovated technology. But this type businesses can't achieve by only the related companie' investments. In USA, there are much helps from local societies. In Korea, When a company present a plan for facilities, then the local residents' first action is a demonstration. They don't try to understand the necessity of the business. I think local community's assistance is the most important key to green businesses.

In businesses, entrepreneurship is so important. It 's because the company's expanding presence and survival. I think green businesses are closely related to the survival. Green policy is not an option, but it's duty.

20700067 Kim Nam Joong entry2

reference: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2008/id20080211_334519.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_green+design

korean internet business

I read an article about the internet business in Korea. It explains how countries all over the world are fighting to take the lead in e-commerce. Korean companies are accelerating their efforts to facilitate the e-commerce while the government endeavoring to com up with industrial policies central to e-commerce by establishing the basic Act on electronic commerce in 1999, "Comprehensive Policies for e-Commerce Development" in 2000 and "e-Business Initiative in Korea" in 2001 It says that If the Korean government's strategies are implemented as planned, e-commerce -- which has been delayed due to absence of cooperation among enterprises and lack of investment capability of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) -- will be disseminated throughout the nation’s entire economy. The report given was designed to examine the possibilities for growth of e-commerce by reviewing the current status of and prospects for e-commerce in Korea. It will examine the e-commerce infrastructure, followed by the status of each e-commerce area, major e-commerce issues, and will examine problems and key policies of the government. Thanks to a rise in the distribution of computers and the rapid development of information technology, the E-commerce is expanding in Korea as the number of Internet. Thanks to the vastly increased distribution of computers and the growing number of PC communication subscribers since the late 1980s, The Internet is being widely disseminated at a rapid pace in Korea. These explain the Korean well-established IT infrastructure and positive government policies supporting the information and communication sector. Korea is one of the most advanced countries in terms of establishment of broadband networks; the cable internet and satellite internet are growing so quickly. This expansion enables users to gain faster and easier Internet access to high-quality and high-quantity contents, thereby contributing to the nation becoming an information superpower. Korea has established in accordance with global legislation related to e-commerce, various Acts and regulations, such as consumer protection and electronic payments. They are promoting projects such as creating infrastructure by establishing and standardizing B2B networks in industries, developing technology, and fostering manpower. They are also promoting projects on international cooperation for the global B2B market and the expansion of e-commerce in other regions. They don’t cease to fight for the improvement in the market in accordance with their government, private institutes and research centers.

reference:http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=latestnews&id=1850
posted by GEMIMA 29700735 entry 2

Unlimited Tunes from Apple?

          Ever since the first iPod was introduced, demand of from young generation to the old has increased greatly. By the look and the easy to use factor of iPod allowed millions of people to carry it with them and play music whenever they wanted to. However, there are still a lot of competitions in the market- actually it is growing faster than ever- and Apple's sales through iTune have been slowing down. To restore its fame over music industry on the web, there's been a rumor that Apple is now considering to pursue a new business strategy to increase its sales through iTune, which is the unlimited access to music service (so called "Tunes") with monthly subscription.
          Currently, iTune offers each piece of music for .99 cents and customers can purchase 12 songs a month and no more for months on end. According to the article, the music industry has been complaining about iTune's pricing option since they do not offer different prices for the songs that are considered to be more valuable instead of .99 cents for each song.
          The benefit of Apple for having the monthly subscription is that it allows the company to have constant predictable stream of revenue. Also, the article explains that if iTune adopts this strategy, there are people who don't want to buy each song for .99 cents on iTune but would pay monthly subscription to have unlimited access to all kinds of songs.
          The main reason why Apple does not adopt this plan yet is that iTune has been very successful in the world; now “it’s the second largest music retailer in the U.S. behind Wal-Mart Stores. It boasts some 50 million customers and has sold some 4 billion songs since its inception in 2003.” (BusinessWeek). However, since the sale of iPod is slowing down, Apple might want to consider a new business model such as the subscription plan. If the sale of iPod decreases, sales on iTune is likely to decrease as well because most of people who use iPod purchase songs on iTune; they are complementary goods. Also, other new competitors such as Facebook and MySpace are now working on their own music store plans.
          I’m not an iPod user or very into music; however, since I’ve seen how much Apple has grown through its sales on iPod and iTune, it’s very interesting to see that now Apple might have to consider a new business model to compete in the industry. I remember that when the first iPod was introduced, I used to say it looks dumb and the function of it cannot match with other MP3 players such as iriver or Samsung. However, with right marketing and business strategy, I noticed that more and more people carry iPod with them, not only for listening music, but a part of their fashion trend. Furthermore, I believe that iTune has been playing an important role on keeping the copyrights and informing teens to know that downloading songs from the web without paying the right amount for the service is illegal. I hope that Apple would consider having such strategy to stay strong in the industry because I also think that it would allow many other customers to benefit from the unlimited access to their favorite music.

Reference;
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2008/tc20080319_503917.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories

20601008 2nd Entry