Cyworld Arrives in the United States

Posted on July 29, 2006

Cyworld, the popular South Korean social network, is now open for business here in the U.S. Katie Fehrenbacher at GigaOM explains how Cyworld is attempting global domination.

Dozens of new social networks are coming to market this year, but Cyworld has seven years of experience and the backing of SK Communications, a subsidiary of Korea's largest wireless operator SK Telecom, to kick off its attempt at global domination.
Cyworld's U.S. efforts are more than just a way to tap the American market, the site is the platform for building sites that will be launched in Europe - Germany and the U.K. among other EU countries - as well as South America, and east Asia. Cyworld already has sites in China, Japan and Taiwan. While MySpace has similar plans to launch in Germany this summer, Cyworld plans to open a site in Germany early next year in a partnership with Deutsche Telecom.

The Cyworld site has many features that are similar to MySpace but unlike MySpace it tends to pop open new windows instead of providing new content on the same window. This feature might irritate some users. A couple unique features include "acorn points" Cyworld users can shop with and the Minime avatars:

reate your Minime - your avatar in Cyworld. Your Minime represents all aspects of you ... the "you" inside of you, the "you" you want to be. Or just the "you" you feel like sharing today. Have fun styling your Minime. You can change its hair, clothing, facial expression, mood, position and background as often as you like.

Will MySpace debut an avatar challenge to the minime? That remains to be seen. GigaOM also says Cyworld has a 30-person team working in San Francisco and that the U.S. Cyworld site will officially debut in August.