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| .kr South Korea |
Overview South Korea (referred to as Korea in this chapter) is currently ranked highest in the world in terms of the development of information infrastructure. The country also enjoys the highest penetration of broadband Internet. As of November 2003, 11 million households (or over 70 percent of total households) and all schools have broadband Internet connections. As high-speed Internet becomes entrenched in everyday life, online services evolve from simple information searches to multimedia services, including e-commerce, online entertainment and e-learning. Internet usage figures have shown a steep upward trend with the ever-deepening penetration of IT into government and social life. In 1997, the number of Internet users was only 1.6 million, but in 2000 it jumped to 19 million. This figure topped out at 30 million in 2004, representing 65 percent of the total population aged six and older (Korea Network Information Center, 2004). ICT industrial production contributes 25.1 percent to Korea’s GDP, the highest among OECD member states. ICT exports take up a high 28 percent of total exports. Korea ranks fourth in the world in the production of ICT devices. Notably, the mobile phone market has grown at such an astounding rate that it now surpasses the fixed-line market, with 68 percent of the total population, and 79 percent of the population aged between 10 and 80 years, now using mobile phones. Korea has faced great structural transformations in every field since the 1990s. As a result of rapid political democrati-sation, civil society’s influence over the government has increased and political transparency has improved noticeably. Knowledge-based industries like IT have developed to become a growth engine of the economy, while traditional manufacturing industries have declined in terms of their economic contribution. Socially, the activities and influence of young netizens have increased and the rights and benefits of historically neglected groups, such as women and labourers, have been extended. ICT is an important enabler of such social structural transformation of Korea. The new technologies have helped to change communication structures from the top-down and one-way model to participation with lateral and two-way flows of communication. This change has noticeably improved democracy, equality and transparency. In addition, the rapid development of broadband Internet has enabled the provision of high-quality services at very moderate costs and promoted the social participation of various classes of people including the younger generation. The widespread diffusion and adoption of ICT has also become a core factor in spurring the growth of Korea’s ICT industry. The new technologies are affecting every facet of Korean society as an enabler of change and development by transforming the operational processes of major organisations, including the government and businesses, as well as changing people’s lifestyle and values. However, the active and broad application of IT in Korea is only a recent phenomenon. Until the mid-1980s, Korea suffered from a shortage of wired telephones. There were only a small number of mobile phone users in the mid-1990s, and Internet use was limited largely to certain organisations, such as universities and research institutes. In the late 1990s, however, Korea experienced an explosive ICT growth. The number of mobile phone users passed the ten-million mark in 1998, while the number of Internet users broke through that mark in 1999. In order to understand why Korea’s ICT growth was so rapid within such a short period of time, it is best to look at national strategies rather than market mechanisms. This does not mean that market mechanisms did not contribute to ICT development. In fact, through competition in the telecom-munications market, efficiency was raised and private investment accelerated. However, the market mechanism of Korea at the end of the 1980s was not that different from those of many other countries because of the global trend of telecommunications market liberalisation. Thus, analysing. . . . . . the complete text of this chapter is available for purchase and immediate download as a PDF file, please click here for more information. |
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