We Tell Your Story to the World

South Korea

Media Landscape

Preface1
South Korea is one of the world's wealthiest nations, and is a member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) and the G-20 major economies. It is a developed country, with a mature market and high-income economy.
South Korea has a market economy that ranks 13th in the world by 2014 nominal GDP and is the worlds seventh-largest exporter
which shipped $559.6 billion worth of products around the globe in 2013. That figure represents 3.1% of worldwide exports,
which are estimated at $18.1 trillion. Overpopulation (51,218,424 as of May 2014) and a relative lack of natural resources has
deterred continued population growth and the formation of a large internal consumer market. The country has adapted by
implementing an export-oriented economic strategy to fuel its economy.
Electronics, telecommunications, automobile production, chemicals, shipbuilding and steel are key industries in South Korea.
The following items were the main export products of the country in 2013: Electronic equipment (24.2% of total exports),
vehicles excluding trains and streetcars (13%), machinery (10.6%), mineral fuels including oil (9.7%), optical & technical & medical
apparatus (6.4%), ships & boats & other floating structures (6.4%) etc. South Korea is a highly export-driven and industrialized
economy.

[1] Refer to Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Economy_of_South_Korea), (http://www.worldstopexports.com/south-koreas-top-10-exports/2302)

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Table of Contents
Preface...................................................................... 2
Overview.................................................................. 4
Traditional Media............................................... 5
News agency.................................................................................. 6
Newspapers(daily) ........................................................................... 8
Magazine.............................................................................. 13
Radio...................................................................................... 17
T V............................................................................................ 18
Media in Chinese....................................................................................... 20

Online Media .......................................................... 22

Search engines................................................................................................... 23
Blogs ..................................................................................... 26

New Media(SNS)..................................................... 27
Multimedia ......................................................................................... 28
Mobile media ................................................................................................ 29

PR/Communications Industry in Korea...............33

Characteristic..................................................................................... 34
Trends........................................................................................... 37
Major PR agencies in South Korea..................................................................41

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South Korea Media Landscape

Overview2
South Korea is a media-friendly country. As of 2014, this country of over forty-nine million people had as many as 150 daily
newspapers, with the top three of its national dailies boasting circulation of more than two million copies each. Television is
ubiquitous with four national networks, over 150 cable channels, and South Korea has issued two UHD channel licenses to cable
operators and satellite operators in 2014. Four South Korean cable operators -CJ Hellovision, C&M, T-Broad and HCN- have jointly
launched the UMAX 4K channel, which initially had 40 programs in 4K format.
Koreans are avid users of new communication technologies as well. The availability and adoption of new communication devices in
South Korea is on a par with the world's most industrialized countries. In a market of free economy and electoral democracy, Korea's
mass media and its press fiercely compete among themselves while benefiting from a high degree of freedom from formal constraint.
South Korea is at the leading edge of the digital revolution. It is a trailblazer for high-speed and wireless internet. More than 40 million
South Koreans were online by the end of 2011 (InternetWorldStats). According to BBC, South Korea has one of the world's biggest
blogging communities, second only to China. The country is a pioneer of TV via mobile devices and the internet (IPTV). Twitter is also
a popular medium for political debate and campaigning.
Back in 2009 an industry giant like Google held only 3% of the market, with Naver dominating by far the whole scene, mostly due
to its nature of being a complete web-portal, where people can hang out and not just do searches.
And this does not apply only to the search market: just think about the popularity of Seoul-based mobile app Kakao Talk and the
success of platforms like Daum-owned light-blogging site Tistory, or Naver's alternative to Twitter Me2Day.
The South Korean press benefits from the availability of a highly literate audience. The adult literacy rate is estimated to be over 97
percent; since literacy is not a national concern anymore, the Ministry of Education has stopped estimating it. Further, all Koreans
speak the same language and Korea is a single-race society, although there are regional dialects.
[2] Refer to (http://www.pressreference.com/Sa-Sw/South-Korea.html#ixzz3GHyNwAcy) , (http://www.digitalintheround.com/
south-korea-cyworld-facebook/), (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-15291415), (http://www.digitalintheround.
com/south-korea-cyworld-facebook/)

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Traditional Media
1 News agency
2 Newspapers (daily)
3 Magazine
4 Radio
5 TV
6 Media in Chinese

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News agency
A. Yonhap News3
www.yonhapnews.co.kr/
Yonhap News is a publicly funded news agency based in Seoul, South Korea. Yonhap
provides news articles, pictures and other information to mainly the online media, and
newspapers, TV networks and other media in South Korea as well.
Yonhap (meaning united in Korean) was established on December 19, 1980, through the merger of Hapdong News
Agency and Orient Press. It maintains various agreements with 78 non-Korean news agencies, and also has a servicesexchange agreement with North Koreas Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), signed in 2002.
Yonhap News Agency provides some 3,000 multimedia news items each day covering politics, the economy, society,
culture, entertainment, sports, science, and other topics, helping readers access news from the global village.
Yonhap has 580 journalists and photographers posted at the Seoul head office, regional offices and overseas bureaus,
comprising the largest news-gathering network in Korea. Under a 2003 law passed by the South Korean parliament,
Yonhap has been charged with promoting the country's image and distributing information -- a task deemed critical to
addressing the domination of information by major Western news media.
Yonhap's foreign-language news service is distributed in English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Spanish and French. In 1988,
Yonhap became the first of the Korean press to establish an electronic system for writing and releasing news articles to its
clients.

[3] Refer to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonhap), (http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/about/index.html)

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B. Newsis4-news agency & wire service

http://www.newsis.com/
Newsis is the largest private news agency in South Korea with 150 journalists working at
its headquarters in Seoul. Established in 1995, they changed names to Newsis in 2001 and
began a series of partnerships in 2002, starting with Reuters, AFP in 2003, AP in 2005 and
Xinhua in 2006, amongst others. Current collaborations with main daily newspaper companies and search engines include NAVER,
DAUM, Nate, and zum, which supply audiences with news content 24/7 in real time. In 2007, they established a subsidiary company
called Newsiswire.com, which is dedicated to wire services.

[4] Refer to (http://newsis.com/)

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Newspapers (daily)5
The Chosun Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo and JoongAng Ilbo together dominate and have a combined 55 percent market share.
Chosun is the most influential amongst Koreans. Notable amongst the rest of the newspapers is Hankyoreh, which
is considered a left-wing newspaper. It is often a lone voice in raising questions about the behavior of the countrys
conglomerates.
For breaking news, the governments Yonhap News Agency is extremely helpful. Their website also carries audio news and
photographs. Yonhap is an invaluable source on the latest developments in North Korea.
The main English-language newspaper is the Korea Herald. Others like The Chosun Ilbo, Dong-a Ilbo, Korea Times,
Hankyoreh Sinmun and Joong Ang Ilbo (affiliated with the International Herald Tribune) all carry English-language pages,
as does the Yonhap News Agency. The Seoul Times is an online English newspaper for foreigners in Korea and Digital
Chosun Ilbo is an English online version of the Chosun Ilbo. Other English-language websites include Dong-As and Joon
Ang Ilbos.
Newspaper readership is high and there are more than 150 national and local dailies. Korea's ten national generalinterest dailies, mostly morning papers, are all based in Seoul. These national dailies set the pace of news and national
agendas together with the increasing power of national television networks. The circulation of the national dailies is truly
nationwide; some of the big dailies run locally based printing facilities to serve the readers in the provincial areas more
efficiently. 6
However, in common with any other countries, newspapers in Korea are facing difficulties as they transition into the IT era.
Subscription rates for South Koreas newspapers have been falling, due to the influence of online & new media.

[5] Refer to (http://asianz.org.nz/our-work/media/covering-asia/south-korea)

[6] Refer to (http://www.pressreference.com/Sa-Sw/South-Korea.html#ixzz3GNRDipAp)

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Newspaper Subscriptions in South Korea

Subscription

(Unit: %)

Readership

1996

69.3

1998

64.5

2000

59.8

2002

52.9

82.1

2004

48.3

76.0

2006

40.0

68.8

2008

36.8

58.5

2010

29.0

52.6

2011

24.8

44.6

2012

24.7

40.9

2013

20.4

33.8

According to a survey by the Korea Press Foundation (KPF), newspapers incurred a loss in 2012 even though sales rose by 4.6 percent.
The survey also shows a clear downturn in readership. While 82 percent of the respondents in the KPF's 2002 survey said they read
newspapers, only 33.8 percent said so in the survey for 2013. The KPF predicts this decline will continue as readers switch further to
free online news. As serious as the falling income in the printed media is the ideological polarization. Korean newspapers are divided
in the same way as the political landscape.
Chosun Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo are the major newspapers, which have conservative ideals; Cho-Joong-Dong is a coined
term which refers to three highly-circulated conservative newspapers in South Korea. Hankook Ilbo is moderate; Kyunghyang
Shinmun and The Hankyoreh are the major newspapers which hold liberal ideals. In South Korea, conservative newspapers are more
widely read. Maeil Business Newspaper and Korea Economic Daily are the major business newspapers.

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Here are the South Korean newspaper circulation rankings

for 2013 via research conducted by ABC.
Name

Circulation

Charged circulation

Chosun Ilbo

1,757,006

40,121

JoongAng Ilbo

1,263,681

811,083

the Dong-A Daily News

907,090

707,346

Maeil Business Newspaper

770,504

553,007

Korea Economic Daily

507,986

340,389

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A. Chosun Ilbo7
The Chosun Ilbo is one of the major newspapers in South Korea. Chosun Ilbo and its subsidiary
company, Digital Chosun operates the Chosun.com news website, which also publishes web versions
of the newspaper in English, Chinese, and Japanese. Chosun.com is ranked as the No.1 Korean news
website by the Internet survey company Rankey.com
The Chosun Ilbo, arguably the largest-circulation daily, is also the most influential in Korea. Like other
leading dailies, this paper is a mammoth media complex, publishing not only the main vernacular
paper but a weekly newsmagazine, a monthly magazine, a women's monthly, a children's daily, and a
sports daily.
Its editorial direction is independent and conservative, hence the voice of Korea's traditionally conservative mainstream power
structure. Being the most influential and prestigious paper in Korea, the Chosun Ilbo draws plenty of top talent to its newsroom and
taps well-known intellectuals as contributors. It enjoys an upper hand in the competitive newspaper market.

[ 7 ] Refer to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chosun_Ilbo), (http://www.pressreference.com/Sa-Sw/

South-Korea.html#ixzz3GI89f7PR)

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B. JoongAng Ilbo8
JoongAng Ilbo is one of the three biggest newspapers in South Korea. The paper also publishes
an English edition, Korea JoongAng Daily, in alliance with the International New York Times.
The JoongAng Ilbo, the second-largest circulation daily, used to be owned by Korea's leading
multinational business conglomerate Samsung Group. It publishes the Korean edition of the Newsweek magazine besides a generalinterest monthly magazine and a women's monthly. A staunch supporter of free-market practices, it attracts a large number of
readers for its business and financial news coverage.

Dong-A Ilbo9
The Dong-A Ilbo has been another leading newspaper in Korea since 1920 with daily circulation
and opinion leaders as its main readers.
The Dong-A Ilbo is the parent company of Dong-A Media Group (DAMG), which is composed
of 11 affiliates including Sports Dong-A, Dong-A Science, DUNet, and dongA.com, as well as Channel A, a general service cable
broadcasting company launched in December 1, 2011. It covers a variety of areas including news, drama, entertainment, sports,
education, and movies 24 hours a day.
The Dong-A Ilbo has partnered with international news companies such as The New York Times of the United States of America, The
Asahi Shimbun of Japan and The People's Daily of China. It has correspondents stationed in five major cities worldwide including
Washington D.C., New York, Beijing, Tokyo and Paris. It also publishes global editions in 90 cities worldwide including New York,
London, Paris and Frankfurt.

[ 8 ] Refer to (http://www.pressreference.com)
[ 9 ] Refer to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dong-a_Ilbo)

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Magazine10
Statistics Korea issued a report in 2013 showing that book consumption (sales of hardcovers, paperbacks, and magazines)
sunk to record lows in 2012 with the average spending per household dropping below 20,000 KRW (about $18.44). Sales
of new books decreased by 20 percent in 2012. Online purchases of books dropped for the first time since the agency
began tracking e-commerce activity in 2001.
According to data from the Korean Publishers Association (KPA), 39,767 new titles were published in 2012 with a total print
run of 86.97 copies, making it the first time since 2000 that less than 100 million copies of new books were published over
a years time.
As a result of the ubiquity of smartphones the value of magazines as a source of information is waning. The younger
generation in particular, is moving away from magazines at an accelerating rate. In response to this change, many
magazine publishers have launched their own e-magazines.

[10 ] Refer to publishingperspectives.com

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General category magazine rankings in South Korea

according to circulation by month.11
(2012. 7 ~ 2013. 6)

Name

circulation

Charged
circulation

Category

Frequency

Food and Human

( )

350,000

Restaurant
Franchise

Monthly

Positive Thinking
( )

260,336

198,722

Well-being, Poem

Monthly

InSan Korean Medical

( )

103,338

Korean Medical

Monthly

Noblesse

76,204

978

Fashion

Monthly

Rural Life
( )

70,642

68,224

Culture, Health,
Home Decor

Monthly

[ 11 ] Source: Korea Audit Bureau of Circulation (http://www.kabc.or.kr/)

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Influential News & Economy Magazines in South Korea12

Name

(Monthly)

circulation

Charged
circulation

Category

47,333

25,669

Newsmagazine

38,442

30,575

Newsmagazine

30,475

19,391

Newsmagazine

Monthly Chosun
( )

2
Monthly JoongAng
( )

3
New Dong-A
( )

[ 12 ] Source: Korea Audit Bureau of Circulation (http://www.kabc.or.kr/)

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Influential News & Economy Magazines in South Korea

Name

Sisa IN
( )

Maekyung ECONOMY
( )

Sisa Journal
( )

(Weekly)

circulation

Charged
circulation

Category

71,026

54,422

Newsmagazine

68,753

45,640

Business,
Economy

49,820

32,778

Newsmagazine

The Hankyoreh21
( 21)

48,121

37,348

Newsmagazine

Hankyung Business
( )

37,489

27,039

Business,
Economy

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Radio
South Korean radio frequencies are crowded with a variety of broadcasters, many of whom also have a strong presence
in the television market. KBS, for example, operates six radio networks, MBC runs MBC Radio and music-oriented MBC
FM, and SBS operates SBS-FM. Pyunghwa Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), Christian Broadcasting System (CBS), Buddhist
Broadcasting System (BBS) and Far East Broadcasting Corporation (FEBC) are religious networks. Radio Korea International
is an external broadcaster run by KBS. Between 6am and midnight an English language radio station, eFM, broadcasts on
101.3 MHZ.13
Currently there are several representative radio stations in South Korea: KBS radio 1, KBS radio 2, MBC FM4U, MBC Standard
FM, SBS Power FM, SBS Love AM, EBS FM.

[ 13 ] Refer to (http://asianz.org.nz/)

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14

TV

Korea's broadcasting media enjoys a lively and lucrative market. As in many other countries, television is the primary
media of news to most Koreans. According to Korea Press Foundation, in practice, TV is the most reliable media when
people gather information, as compared to the Internet, newspapers, radio, and magazines.
(Unit: %)

2008

2010

2011

2012

2013

TV

60.7

75.4

72.1

72.0

73.4

Internet

20.0

13.1

13.8

15.9

17.9

Newspaper

16.0

10.8

11.8

10.6

7.2

Radio

2.7

0.6

2.0

1.4

1.2

Magazine

0.4

0.1

0.2

0.2

0.4

In South Korea, there are a number of national television networks, the three largest of which are KBS, MBC, and SBS.
South Korea became the third adopter in Asia when television broadcasting began on 12 May 1956 with the opening of
HLKZ-TV, a commercially operated television station.

[ 14 ] Refer to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_South_Korea), (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Media_of_South_Korea#Radio), (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munhwa_Broadcasting_Corporation), (http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seoul_Broadcasting_System)

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A. KBS
Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) is the national broadcaster of South Korea. It was founded in 1927, and operates radio, television
and online services, being one of the biggest South Korean television networks. As for terrestrial television there are KBS 1TV, KBS
2TV, KBS UHD and as a Cable and satellite television there are KBS Prime, KBS Drama, KBS N Sports, KBS Joy, KBS Kids, KBS W.

B. MBC
The Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) is one of four major national South Korean television and radio networks, and is the
oldest among all commercial broadcasting networks in South Korea. Munhwa is the Korean word for "culture".

C. SBS
Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) is a South Korean television and radio network. It is the only private commercial broadcaster with
wide regional network affiliates to operate in the country. In March 2000, the company legally became known as SBS, changing its
corporate name from Seoul Broadcasting System.

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Media in Chinese
Currently in South Korea, there are 1.5 million foreigners who has purpose to stay in Korea for long-term and 850,000 of
them are Chinese. Besides, the Chinese are frequent visitors to South Korea under the influence of K-pop and the Korean
wave. The following are influential Chinese language media for Chinese people in South Korea:

1. Korean News agencies which provide Chinese language service

on their website.
1

Chosun Ilbo

http://cnnews.chosun.com/?servicemap

JoongAng Ilbo

http://chinese.joins.com/gb/index.html

Dong-A Ilbo

http://chinese.donga.com/gb/index.html

Maeil Business Newspaper

http://china.mk.co.kr/china/

Yonhap News

http://chinese.yonhapnews.co.kr/

Aju Business

http://china.ajunews.com/

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2. Drama & Entertainment TV Channels in Korea

1

Ching

Hyundai Media

http://ching.hyundaimedia.com/

Junghwa TV

CJ E&M

http://ch.interest.me/zhtv/zhtv/
Info#footer_navi_menu_0

3. Chinese magazines imported from China

1

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Online Media
South Korea can be considered as a world leader when it
comes to the internet. It boasts the worlds swiftest average
broadband speeds (of around 22 megabits per second).
By January 2014, the government announced that it will
upgrade the country's wireless network to 5G by 2020,
making downloads about 1,000 times faster than they are
now. Rates of internet penetration are among the highest in
the world.
The adoption and use of the Internet and online versions of
the press are extensive in South Korea. Most of the nation's
media offer online versions with news and other editorial
contents. The websites of major media daily newspapers
and television networksare highly graphic in presentation,
speedy in delivering breaking news, and interactive for a
variety of services like instant polls. They are all accessible
and free of charge.
Often they offer condensed English versions too. The established media's websites can be readily accessed through links provided by
the Korea Press Foundation (KPF). The online press is very popular among the younger generation and in particular college students.
The online press is being taken as the third most important medium of news after television and newspapers, more important than
radio, magazines, and cable television. 15

[ 15 ] Refer to (http://www.pressreference.com/Sa-Sw/South-Korea.html#ixzz3GNs40hHr), (http://www.

pressreference.com/Sa-Sw/South-Korea.html#ixzz3GIGL8lrW), (http://www.economist.com/blogs/economistexplains/2014/02/economist-explains-3)

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 22

Search engines
Although Google presently holds 83% of the global search market, in South Korea the market leader is Naver. Ask any
Korean what search engine they use, and most likely, the answer will be Naver. 16

The most popular search engines in South Korea. 17

Investigation period: 2014.01.01~ 2014.06.01)

Name

Website URL

Market share

Naver

www.naver.com

80.74 %

Daum

www.daum.net

15.42 %

Google

www.google.co.kr

2.09 %

Zum

www.zum.com

0.92 %

Others

Bing

www.bing.com

0.19 %

Yahoo

www.yahoo.com

0.10 %

Nate

www.nate.com

0.09 %

Yahoo Korea

kr.search.yahoo.com

0.01 %

0.44 %

[ 16 ] Refer to (http://www.link-assistant.com/blog/google-vs-naver-why-cant-google-dominate-searchin-korea/#ixzz3G5SuMxxP)
[ 17 ] Source: internettrend.co.kr

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A. Naver18
Back in 2009 a giant like Google held only 3% of the market, with Naver dominating by
far the whole scene, mostly due to its nature of being a complete web-portal, where
people could hang out and not just search for stuff. 19
Naver is the most popular search portal in South Korea and has held a market share of over 70% or more since 2011, continuing to
2014. Naver was launched in June 1999 by ex-Samsung employees, and it debuted as the first Web portal in South Korea that used its
own proprietary search engine.
Among Naver's features is "Comprehensive Search", launched in 2000, which provides results from multiple categories on a single
page. It has since added new services such as "Knowledge Search", launched in 2002. It also provides Internet services including a
news service, an e-mail service, an academic thesis search service, and a children's portal.
In 2005, Naver launched Happybean, the world's first online donation portal, which allows users to find information and make
donations to over 20,000 civil society and social welfare organizations.
According to comScore, Naver received 2 billion queries in August 2007, accounting for over 70% of all search queries in Korea, and
making it the fifth most used search engine in the world, following Google search, Yahoo!, Baidu and Bing. More than 25 million
Koreans have Naver as their default browser start page. Naver launched its service in Japan in 2009, marking their first expansion out
of Korea.

[ 18 ] Refer to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naver)

[ 19 ] Refer to (http://www.digitalintheround.com/south-korea-cyworld-facebook/)

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B. Daum
Daum is the second most popular portal in South Korea, following Naver. Daum offers many Internet
services to web users, including a popular free web-based e-mail, messaging service, forums, shopping
and news.
The popularity of Daum stems from the range of services it offers, but also from the fact that it was the
first Korean web portal of significant size. Its popularity started when it merged with the most popular
e-mail service, daum.net or hanmail.net. After the merging, Daum started the forum service Daum Cafe
which brought its firm status in the market. The term cafe and even internet cafe (different from the Western meaning) is now used as
the synonym for "Internet forum" in Korean.
The company also develops and distributes the freeware media player PotPlayer. In addition to its freeware media player(Daum
tvPot), Daum Communications Corp. provides a variety of services such as cloud service (Daum Cloud), Daum Dictionary (applicable
on mobile devices), Daum Comics, and map service (Daum Maps).
Daum Communications merged with Kakao Inc. (KakaoTalk) to form Daum Kakao in 2014.

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20

Blogs

Interestingly, one of the most popular forms of social media in South Korea is blogging, with their top blogging network
like Tistory. While blogs often are not viewed by American companies as an efficient, high-speed way of communicating
information to a large mass of people, in South Korea blogs are a widespread phenomenon that see a level of internet
traffic high above what we would consider more conventional social media sites. Another site that has seen a recent
explosion of popularity in South Korea is KakaoStory, a mobile application where you can share photos with a group of
followerssimilar to Instagram.
Post topics range from personal reflections on philosophical conjectures to simple everyday life stories. Some of the
popular Korean blog hosting websites include Naver Blog, Egloos, Blogin, Daum Blog, Yahoo! Korea Blog, Tistory, and
Textcube.com.

Here is the list of influential blog platforms in South Korea.

Name

Website URL

Naver Blog

blog.naver.com

Egloos

www.egloos.com

Blogin

blogin.com

Daum Blog

blog.daum.net

Tistory

www.tistory.com

[ 20 ] Refer to (http://www.languagetrainers.com/blog/2013/12/04/a-guide-to-social-media-in-south-koreafacebook-twitter-and-other-sites/)

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21

New Media(SNS)

The penetration rate for smartphones among mobile-phone users in South Korea
was 70.14% at the end of June in 2014, meaning that for the first time, seven out
of every ten cellphone subscriptions are for smartphones, data compiled by the
government showed.
The penetration of smartphones in South Korea raises the usage of new media such
as social media, multimedia and mobile media. Koreans people have been ramping
up social media spending, and the focus is still on Facebook. According to a February
2013 study conducted by KPR, Social Communication Research Lab, 87.1% of
companies and public institutions surveyed said they were on Facebook, more than
were on any other social media platform.
Here are the results of a survey on Social media market share rankings in the Korean market conducted by DMC Media in June 2014.

Social media market share rankings in the Korean market (plural response)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Facebook
Blog (naver, daum etc)
Kakao story
Band
Youtube
Twitter
Instagram
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Google +

77.4 %
29.8%
29.5 %
22 %
15.8 %
8.9 %
8%
2.2 %
2%
2%

[ 21 ] Refer to http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2014/07/28/koreas-smartphone-population-topsmilestone/, http://www.emarketer.com/Article/South-Korea-Facebook-Companies-Social-Network-ofChoice/1009779#sthash.lTE951Kq.dpuf

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 27

Multimedia
Here is the market share ranking of website for Multimedia in South Korea. The research was conducted by Korean Click in
October 2014.

Rank

Name

URL

Share

http://www.youtube.com

79.91%

Youtube

Pandora TV

http://www.pandora.tv/

3.09%

GOM TV

http://www.gomtv.com

2.54%

In practice, the preference for YouTube in South Korea has been constantly increasing since 2008. Compared with its 2%
market share in 2008, this could be considered to be an explosive growth. Pandora TV, GOM TV, Mgoon, Tving which are
said to be the Korean domestic Big4 were dominated by YouTube.

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 28

Mobile media
South Korea was the first to roll out the searing LTE-A network in summer 2013. In South Korea, nearly all smartphone
users are KakaoTalk subscribers, similar to WeChat in China. Kakao Corp brought mobile big bang to the country by
launching the popular messaging service four years ago. Now, it is the main means of communication among smartphone
users.

Mobile messenger market share (plural response)22

Rank

Name

Share

Kakao Talk

95%

Line

12%

Facebook Messenger

6%

WhatsApp

3%

[ 22 ] Conducted by bizspring in 2014 rst quarter

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 29

A. Kakaotalk23
KakaoTalk is a free mobile instant messaging application for smartphones with free text and free call features. KakaoTalk currently has
152 million users and is available in 15 languages. The app is also used by 93% of smartphone owners in South Korea.
Kakao began its attempt to break out of South Korea with its push into Japan in 2011, by joining forces with Yahoo! Japan to
challenge Line, Japans dominant mobile messenger service with 240m users. It is trying to expand its reach into Southeast Asia in
Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, where there are no dominant players. Line, owned by NHN, has a strong presence
in Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand, while China and Hong Kong are dominated by Tencents WeChat with 200m users.

[ 23 ] Refer to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KakaoTalk), Financial Times Asia www.ft.com

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 30

B. Line
The Number of Line's registered users from Dec 2011
to October 2014 24
Registered users

Registered users

Dec 11

10

Aug 13

230

Apr 12

30

Oct 13

280

Jul 12

50

Nov 13

300

Nov 12

80

Feb 14

350

Jan 13

100

Apr 14

400

Mar 13

120

Jun 14

450

Apr 13

150

Jul 14

470

May 13

160

Sep 14

490

Jul 13

200

Oct 14

560

Line is a Japanese proprietary application for instant messaging on smartphones and

personal computers. Line users exchange text messages, graphics, video and audio
media, and make free VoIP calls, and hold free audio or video conferences.
Line began in 2011 as the brainchild of engineers at NHN Japan, the Japanese arm of
Naver Corporation (formerly NHN) based in South Korea. Today the popular messaging
service is operated by LINE Corporation, a spinoff company headquartered in Japan,
which still remains a subsidiary of Naver.
Line began in summer 2011 as a communication system for NHN Japan employees, then saw explosive growth when released to the
public in June of that year. By January 18, 2013, Line had been downloaded 100 million times worldwide.
[ 24 ] Source: statista.com

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 31

Mobile news app

Chosun Ilbo

Edaily News

Asia Economic news

Ziny. NEWS

NEWS is ()

Busan Ilbo

Chosun Biz

JTBC News

Sports Chosun

Yonhap News

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 32

PR/Communications industry in Korea

1 Characteristic
2 Trends
3 Major PR agencies in South Korea

Public Relations was introduced in South Korea by the new democratic government after the Korean war. It was used mainly for the
purposes of Crisis Management and Government Public Relations. The face of Public Relations began to change during the 1980s
when foreign entities began establishing businesses in South Korea. The growing connection between South Korea and the rest of
the world saw Public Relations taking on important roles in large corporations and the wider public. 25

[ 25 ] Refer to : http://southkoreanpr.blogspot.hk/2011/08/south-korean-economy-public-relations.html

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 33

26

Characteristic

Hallyu( ), the Korean wave, has put Korea on the map

especially across East and Southeast Asia. The cultural
phenomenon has now evolved to a worldwide scale fronted
by Korean music (think PSY and the beat of "Gangnam Style"
and K-pop idols), cosmetic brands, cuisine and clothing.
Who would have thought that in less than 50 years such
a transformation would take place? There has been much
debate and analysis on this topic, specifically how the
government and business colluded to build the foundation
for technological advancement, education and urbanization.
While there is no denying the influence of such privatepublic partnership in Koreas globalization, the interesting
evaluation comes to the role of public relations. How has
Korea embraced PR and in such adoption, how much has
PR shaped Korea and its conglomerates? More importantly,
what role will PR play in the future of Korea?

[ 26 ] Refer to Margaret Keys Public relations in Korea a review of cultureal and historical ingluences
(http://www.ipra.org/itl/08/2013/public-relations-in-korea-a-review-of-cultural-and-historical-inuences)

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 34

Public Relations tied to the rise and fall of Korean multinationals.

The real change in Korean public relations started with globalization of the country
under the era of the 88 Olympics and the entry of multinationals with their demands
for marketing, advertising and public relations. in fact, was after the Olympics and
at this time, foreign companies also started to see Korea as part of their global
expansion.
As foreign companies looked towards entry into Korea, the country was also adopting
an internationalization policy in the early to late 90s. It was at this time that Korean
companies started to make successful inroads into foreign markets. Korea was ranked
11th among all global economies and gained entry into the OECD in 1997.
With the IMF, the government and companies were forced to reassess their strategies, their governance and the past privatepublic partnerships. It is at this time that Korean companies evaluated their old ways and began to rely on advice and counsel from
consultants. The "Korean way" that may have worked in the past had become irrelevant, requiring greater adaptation and reliance on
third party consultants. Not surprisingly, this was the period when PR firms thrived and grew in number.
Every one of the top Korean companies today now relies on the services of international PR firms and has vast teams of in-house
communications professionals to manage both domestic and foreign media and stakeholders. Yet, as mentioned earlier, how to
engage media and how to leverage PR is still not well understood, particularly since PR is seen as a means to control the story.
While PR has definitely gained greater recognition in market and by Korean companies, there is still a very limited view of how public
relations can build a brand and in particular, how public relations can sit front and center in some instances but also be embedded
and integrated into over-arching corporate communications.

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 35

Future of Public Relations for Korean MNCs

Public relations in Korea has evolved in many ways along the same tract as the countrys development: fast-paced, reactive vs.
proactive and insular to external-focus. In view of the countrys history, the government and business worked together in building
the country from a poor economy into one of the worlds most robust, industrialized nations.
However, with the opening of borders, the country also became vulnerable to international standards and learned the hard way
that Korea needed to shape up practices and regulations in order to take a place at the global level. As the government followed the
advice and counsel of experts and outside consultants, Korean MNCs turned to the global marketplace for expansion and when doing
so, found themselves tasked with defining their strategic focus and brand value. Today, Korea represents one of the most dazzling
economic and cultural forces and each day highlights a new milestone: election of the countrys first female President, globally in
terms of smartphone users, top tourist destination for Asians and the list goes on and on.

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 36

Trends
Basically Good PR must create the social issue through the PR strategy that acquire spontaneous sympathy from the
consumers. Based on this theory, there are several global communication trends that people of PR would concur with for
2014.27
Shift to Mobile and Beyond
Micro-targeting: Its Time to Really Get to Know Your Customers
Social Media Impact on Communication
Brand journalism
Image/Visual is All
Evidence-Based
The PR/Communications industry in South Korea remarkably exhibits two trends as follows.

[ 27 ] Refer to : (http://www.ripleypr.com/blog/b2b-public-relations-and-marketing-trends-for-2015/), (http://

www.wpp.com/wpp/marketing/publicrelations/10-global-communication-trends-2014/)

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 37

A. Mobile advertising 28
Mobile advertising has been expanding fast in South Korea on the back of robust user demand
and a growth in mobile payment, with its size to soon eclipse the Internet-based market, data
showed today.
The percentage of mobile advertising expenses spent this year by local companies accounted
for 38.4 percent of their total online advertising spending, according to an estimate by market
researcher E-Marketer Inc. The figure will likely jump to 54.4 percent next year, surpassing that
of the Internet advertising, the report said. The portion for mobile advertising had only stood at
20.1 percent in 2013, it added.
South Korea, where every eight out of 10 people use a smartphone, has seen a rapid growth in
mobile advertising as people tend to consume media or gain information through their handset
instead of the Web. In tandem with strong market growth, the influence of mobile advertising
is growing as well. According to media representative MezzoMedia, the effectiveness of mobile
ads is 65, provided that those of TV ads are 100. In addition, a report on the daily use of mobile
phones, PCs, and TVs released by the Nielsen Company in June 2014 shows that on average,
Koreans spend more time in activities with their mobile phones (203 minutes) than PCs (86), or
TVs (180).
As a result of this trend, media publishers are turning to new ways of displaying information.
Mobile apps like Cashslide or Honeyscreen transforms the smarphone lock screen into a
commercial billboard and news/blogs interface. This kind of new platforms reaches 2+ million
registered users everyday in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Currently you can find more
this sort of mobile ad app platforms in South Korea. Many PR agencies are turning to this
techonology to reach a broader audience.

[ 28 ] Refer to Busan eFM News (http://busanhaps.com/mobile-advertising-soon-pass-internet-ads-korea/)

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 38

Share of mobile internet in digital advertising spending

in South Korea from 2012 to 201829
Year

Share

2012

10.3%

2013

20.1%

2014

38.4%

2015

54.4%

2016

63.1%

2017

68.8%

2018

73.2%

The timeline show the share of mobile internet in digital advertising spending in South Korea in 2012 and 2013 as well as a forecast
until 2018. The share is expected to grow from 10.3 percent in 2012 to 73.2 percent in 2018.

[ 29 ] Source: Statista 2014 (http://www.statista.com/statistics/312330/mobile-share-digital-ad-spend-south-korea/)

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 39

B. PR Agency Leadership30
According to a Danish marketing scholar Stefan Wehmeiers expectation, the tasks of the media PR or marketing PR is increasingly
being reduced, but the field of consulting, Issues Management, PR strategy establishment, integral communication is getting more
crucial.
We have to pay attention to the face that PR firms will be expected to be more of an active helper rather than a middle person or
mediator. For example, if a PR firm is in charge of a government promotion project, they should be engaged from drafting stage to
carrying out the entire consulting instead of helping only their public/journal communications.
In order to incite the changes or engagement, PR firms should be able to put themselves into the clients situation.
In the same vein, PR firm can produce public service advertisement, conduct an opinion survey, create corporates value and agenda
so they should be able to express their PR insight and strategies independently. Because government organization or companies try
to rely on PR firms capabilities and require and judge directly so they can anticipate the instant result. It means that PR agency must
be the leading player for the requested issue.

[ 30 ] Refer to professor Lee Chul-Hans PR PR (http://www.kprca.or.kr/

webzine/aboutpr_view.asp?seq=130&cpage=1)

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 40

Major PR agencies in South Korea

Heres a global rankings list for Korean PR firms. According to The Holmes Report, for the Korean local PR firms, Prain Global
is ranked 76th, PR One is 95th and KPR & Association is 149th.

The Global 250 Agency Ranking 2014

(Korean Local PR firm)
Rank

Name

Fee income of 2013

76

Prain Global

19,892,451 USD

95

PR One

15,911,644 USD

149

KPR & Association

8,668,970 USD

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 41

A. Korean local PR agencies

a) Prain Global31
Prain was established in 2000 by Jason Yeo with two staff members. In less than a decade, Prain has grown
to become a leading full-service public relations firm with more than 120 employees, making it the largest
independent PR firm in Korea in terms of revenues, number of account executives in various levels, scope of
services, and number of both domestic and international clients

b) PR One
Since the birth of PR in Korea, PR One has promoted to a total of 1,300 clients in the past 20 years and has built
rich know-how in various fields.

c) KPR & Association

KPR was established in 1989 by current Chair, Kay H. Imm. Since their foundation was one of the first
independent public relations consultancies in Korea, KPR is said to be a pioneer in the industry.

[ 31 ] Refer to Prain Global (prain.com)

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 42

B. Foreign PR agencies in Korea

a) Synergy Hill&Knowlton Strategy Korea
Hill+Knowlton Strategies is a global public relations company, headquartered in New York City, United
States, with 90 offices in 52 countries.
WPP announces that its wholly-owned Hill & Knowlton has agreed to acquire further shares in the capital
of Synergy Hill & Knowlton Co, Ltd. Which is one of Koreas leading PR service agencies. It is founded in
1999 and based in Seoul LG Electronics. Lately Synergy Hill&Knowlton Strategy Korea also were in charge
of the oversea market promotion of 2014 Incheon Asian Game and won the Golden prize 2014 Agency of
the year amongst Japan & Korea.

b) Edelman Korea
Edelman is a public relations firm founded as a team of three in the postwar boom, today the company
has revenues of over $734 million annually, employs over 5,000 people with co-headquarters in New York
City and Chicago and is the world's largest independently owned public relations firm. Edelman Korea
is located in Seoul and has resulted in groundbreaking work for the G20 Seoul Summit and National
Population and Housing Census campaign.

c) Weber Shandwick Korea

Weber Shandwick is a public relations firm formed in 2001 by merging the Weber Group (1987),
Shandwick International (1974), and BSMG (2001). Based in Seoul, Weber Shandwick also won the AsiaPacifc Consultancy of the Year 2014.

d) Burson-Marsteller Korea
Burson-Marsteller is a global public relations and communications firm headquartered in New York
City. Burson-Marsteller operates 67 wholly owned offices and 71 affiliate offices in 98 countries in six
continents. Merit/Burson-Marsteller has handled major global programs from Korea including the global
PR programs for the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the Korean 2002 World Cup bid. Merit/Burson-Marsteller
currently works with major multinationals operating in Korea as well as with Korean clients in need of
global communications counsel.

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 43

C. Major wire service in South Korea

Korea Newswire32
http://www.newswire.co.kr/
Korea Newswire is the first online based wire service company which distributes press releases to Korean
media and internet portals. It was established by Dongho Shin, a Korean journalist, and Mijae Ko, a Korean
marketing specialist, in July 2004, and is headquartered in Seoul.
As of October 2012, 3,000 Korean companies, government bodies and organizations are using Korea
Newswire's service to distribute their press releases to Korean major newspapers and broadcasting stations.
About 11,000 Korean journalists are members of the Korea Newswire press releases service.
Korea Newswire is a distribution channel that connects Korean companies with 162 countries around the globe. Partner with Business
Wire, Marketwire and Globe Newswire, Korea Newswire distributes foreign companies' press releases to Korean media and internet
portals and at the same time, distributes Korean companies' press releases to 80,000 global news media including AP, Yahoo, Google
News, New York Times, Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Lexis-Nexis and Factiva.

[ 32 ] Refer to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_Newswire), (http://www.koreanewswire.co.kr/?md=A09&sd=3)

Copyright 2015 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. 44

About PR Newswire
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